The Thermomix® Friend is essentially a second mixing bowl for the TM6 or TM7. We use it whenever a side dish needs to cook at the same time as the main, and potatoes are the classic choice. While the big Thermomix® is busy with a sauce or mince, the potatoes steam away in the Friend and are ready precisely when everything else is.
We have used the Friend almost every day for over two years, and potatoes are the recipe we make in it most often. At first we thought a second appliance was a luxury. Now we know: whenever we want to cook a side dish in parallel with the main component, we save around a third of the time. 800 g potatoes, 500 g water, half an hour almost hands-off. The result is evenly cooked pieces with no scorched patches on the bottom, because the steaming basket keeps the potatoes above the water.
Cooking Potatoes in the Thermomix® Friend
Ingredients 0 / 3 ✓
- 800 g potatoes
- 500 g water
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions 0 / 3
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1
Peel the potatoes.
Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into pieces, then place them in the steaming basket.
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2
Cook the potatoes.
Add water and salt to the mixing bowl, insert the steaming basket, place the mixing bowl into the Thermomix® Friend and cook for 25 min / Varoma / speed 1.
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3
Serve.
Remove the potatoes and use them in another dish or serve as a side.
Tip: You can also slice the potatoes before cooking and use them for potato salad.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why the Friend is concretely better than a saucepan here
Steaming rather than boiling in water. The potatoes sit in the steaming basket, with the water below them in the mixing bowl. The Friend therefore cooks the pieces in steam, not in boiling water. This preserves the natural flavour and stops the outer layers turning mushy before the centre is soft. Anyone who has watched floury potatoes fall apart in a pot will know exactly what we mean.
Hands-off. While the 25 minutes on Varoma are running, we make the sauce, the mince, or the salad in the big Thermomix®. Nobody needs to stir, nobody needs to watch out for anything burning. The Friend runs its programme and beeps when it is done.
The water is a bonus. After 25 minutes there is 500 g of light potato water sitting in the mixing bowl, slightly starchy, with the half teaspoon of salt already in it. We do not pour it away; we use it to loosen a sauce or as a binder for a cream sauce. For dumplings or mashed potatoes it partly replaces the milk and adds a subtle potato flavour.
Quantities and cooking times we have tested repeatedly
The recipe uses 800 g potatoes, 500 g water, and half a teaspoon of salt for 25 minutes on Varoma, speed 1. These figures work for pieces roughly the size of a walnut. If you cut smaller cubes, you can reduce to 22 minutes. Larger halves need 28 to 30 minutes. We recommend cutting all pieces to a similar size so everything is done at the same time.
With floury varieties (Adretta, Bintje) 22 minutes are often enough, as they soften faster. Waxy varieties such as Annabelle or Sieglinde need the full 25 minutes and still hold their shape. For potato salad, waxy varieties are essential because they keep their form. For mash, we use floury ones.
The amount of water does not need to increase if you use more potatoes, as long as the bottom of the mixing bowl is covered. 500 g is enough for full steam production over 25 minutes. With 1.2 kg of potatoes in the steaming basket, we increase to 600 g water and 27 minutes, because more mass absorbs more heat.
What runs in the big Thermomix® at the same time
This is where the real value of the Friend lies. Here are the combinations that appear on our table every week:
Bolognese sauce in the TM6, potatoes in the Friend. The sauce needs 20 minutes at 100 °C, the potatoes need 25 minutes on Varoma. Both start at the same time, both finish at the same time. A classic for batch cookers.
Braised beef sauce in the TM6, boiled potatoes in the Friend. While the sauce is drawing in flavour, the potatoes are steaming. No second pot on the hob needed.
Cream sauce for schnitzel in the TM6, potatoes in the Friend. We toss the finished potatoes briefly in a pan with butter and parsley at the end to give them a little colour.
The most common mistakes when cooking in the Friend
1. Pieces cut to very different sizes
If you mix thick and thin pieces, you end up with some half-cooked and some falling apart. We cut everything to roughly walnut size. Very small potatoes we simply halve; large ones we quarter.
Our solution: Sort roughly by size before cutting. The cut sizes will then match automatically.
2. Too little water in the mixing bowl
Below 400 g of water, steam production is too weak and the potatoes stay hard in the centre. You also risk the bottom of the mixing bowl running dry.
Our solution: At least 500 g of water, always weighed rather than estimated.
3. Forgetting the salt
When steaming, the salt travels from the water through the steam into the potato. Without salt in the water the potatoes stay bland, no matter how much salt you add at the table afterwards.
Our solution: Add the half teaspoon of salt to the mixing bowl together with the water, and do not forget it.
Variations we cook regularly
Jacket potatoes. Wash small potatoes (around 60 g each) unpeeled and place them whole in the steaming basket. 28 minutes on Varoma, speed 1. The skin can then be peeled off with your fingers.
Potatoes for salad. Use a waxy variety, sliced thinly (4 mm), 18 minutes on Varoma, speed 1. The slices are firm enough to cut straight away and do not fall apart when mixed with the dressing.
With caraway or bay. Add a teaspoon of caraway seeds or two bay leaves to the water. The steam carries the aroma into the potatoes without any need to pierce them.
Sweet potatoes in the Friend. Exactly the same principle, but only 18 minutes, as they soften faster. Flavour-wise, a pinch of nutmeg works better than salt.
What you can do with the finished potatoes
From 800 g of cooked potatoes we can make four main-course portions depending on what we feel like. For mashed potatoes with the Thermomix®, the cooked potatoes go straight into the big mixing bowl with milk and butter. For potato salad we leave them to cool for 30 minutes, then slice them and mix in the dressing. For fried potatoes the next day we simply put the pieces in the fridge, and the following lunchtime they go into the pan.
If you are using the Friend for the first time, you can read all about it on our overview page for the Thermomix® Friend, where we explain the operation in detail.
3 days in the fridge, 2 months frozen
Cooked potatoes keep in the fridge in a sealed container for three to four days. We often cook double the quantity, cool half of it down, and eat it the next day as fried potatoes. Waxy varieties keep better than floury ones.
Freezing works only to a limited extent. After thawing, the potatoes are more watery than fresh and are no longer suitable for salad. For mash or soups you can still use them. We therefore rarely freeze them and prefer to cook fresh, as 25 minutes in the Friend is not much effort.
Reheating works best in the microwave (2 minutes at 600 W) or in a pan with a little butter. In a water bath they go mushy, so we avoid that.
How we differ from other guides
Goes well with: Goulash, meatballs and sauerkraut.
Cookidoo® uses 500 g water for 750 g potatoes in the official Friend recipe, and ZauberTopf calculates 1000 g water for 800 g potatoes in the main appliance’s steaming basket. We cook 800 g potatoes in the Friend with 500 g water, roughly half that amount. The Friend holds steam better in its closed system, so less liquid is needed. For the salt we stay with half a teaspoon, because Cookidoo® with a full teaspoon is too salty for our taste, especially when the potato water ends up in the sauce afterwards.
If you want to get more out of the Thermomix® Friend, you will find further Friend recipes and matching main courses from us: mashed potatoes, potato salad, Thermomix® Friend overview.
