Your First Week with the TM7™: Setup, Basics and a 7-Day Plan

The box is open, the pieces are all over la cocina, and you feel a little nervous. Mira, I get it. I grew up around people who cook beautifully, like my sister Yvette, and I was sure I couldn't cook until my Thermomix® TM7™ arrived. Now, in my 50s, with a full-time job and a family, I cook and share my recipes here.

Here is your first week, step by step: the pieces, where the machine should live, the screen, the scale, the lid cap, a 7-day plan of easy recipes from this site, safety and a quick clean. Poquito a poco, one recipe a day.

Unboxing: meet every piece and put the bowl together

Lay everything on a clean towel and peel the film off the screen. Wash every piece that touches food before the first use, by hand or in the dishwasher. Only the base, with the screen and motor, never gets wet.

• Set the steel bowl into the insulation cover, its small tab pointing toward the handle.
• Holding the blade by the top, set it in the bottom and slide the locking lever toward the handle. If it isn't locked, the blade can fall out.
• Place the bowl on the base, line up the lid handle with the bowl handle and press down gently. Twist on the lid cap like a jar lid.
• Butterfly whisk: set it on the blade and turn it slightly against the blade's direction until it hooks. To remove it, twist it off by the ball end.
• To take it apart, let the bowl cool and empty it, slide the lever away from the handle and lift the blade out by the top.

Where to put your TM7

Mi consejo: give it a permanent spot on the countertop. If it lives in a cabinet, it stays there. Look for:

• A clean, solid, level surface, with room between the machine and the edge.
• Distance from the stove, the toaster and other heat. Never set it on a stovetop, even one that's off: induction can heat its metal parts.
• Room above it. Steam can damage the cabinets, and the Varoma adds height.
• A wall outlet, with no power strip or extension cord. Pull out only the cord you need, up to 1 m (about 3 feet), and never set the base on it: that throws off the scale.
• A clean vent on the back, free of grease.

Day one: turn it on and follow one guided recipe

Press the power button and the TM7 walks you through the setup on its 10-inch touchscreen. Have your Wi-Fi password and your Cookidoo® login ready: the user manual says you need both for the full range of features. An update may run first.

Take a little tour. The menu on the left opens the start screen, search, recipes, manual cooking and More, home of the settings, My Week for meal plans and shopping lists, and Tutorials & Help, where the user manual lives.

Then pick one easy guided recipe, like a drink or a soup. The screen tells you what to add and how much, with every time, temperature and speed already set. You add, you confirm, the TM7 does the rest.

Watch the lid. At speed 2 or lower it doesn't lock, so you can lift it to add something or take a peek. Above speed 2 it locks (a small padlock shows on the screen) and unlocks when the step ends. Never force it open.

The scale and the marks inside the bowl

The scale is in the feet of the machine, so you weigh right in the bowl. That's why our recipes give grams first, even for liquids: 500 g (about 2 cups) of broth means pouring until the screen says 500.

Inside the steel bowl, marks show 1 L (I), 2 L (II) and 2.2 L (max). Keep everything under the 2 L mark, especially hot soups and anything you'll blend. Quick rules:

• Don't touch or lean on the TM7 while it weighs, and make sure nothing pulls on the cord.
• Add each ingredient in one go: a very slow trickle may not register.
• It reads to about 1 g, so use measuring spoons for a pinch of salt or a teaspoon of yeast.
• It weighs with the blade still or at speed 2 or lower. Take something out and the number goes negative: that's normal.
• Soups, stews and jams cook at no more than 100°C (212°F) and at speed 2 or lower, as the user manual asks.

The lid cap, and scraping down

Here is what I want you to know: the TM7 has no measuring cup. Its lid cap stays on while you cook and keeps splashes in, and the lid has its own openings for the steam (never cover them). The cap comes off only to wash it, or before the Varoma goes on top.

Recipes and videos made for earlier models may say 'measuring cup', or have you set the simmering basket on the lid as a splash guard. On the TM7, the lid cap does that job. If it pops off in the middle of a step, let the step finish and twist it back on. Careful, it gets hot.

Scraping down is the other early habit. When chopped onion or garlic sticks to the sides, wait for the step to end, lift the lid and push it all down with the spatula, moving its delicate tip gently clockwise near the blade. Use the spatula in the mixing bowl only, never in hot pots on the stove.

Your first 7 days, one easy recipe a day

Here's the plan I'd give a friend: one new skill a day, the quick recipes on weeknights, the dough on the weekend. Read each recipe all the way through before you start. They say 'Recipe in testing' until I cook them in my own TM7 and update them.

Short on time on Day 2? Guacamole with Pico de Gallo teaches the same chop and scrape in about 10 minutes. And on any morning, a Tropical Green Smoothie is a sabroso way to practice weighing and blending.

Safety basics

Nothing scary here, mi gente, just the habits the user manual asks for.

• The TM7 is made for adults. Keep children away from it and its cord while it runs.
• Stay with it while it runs. At high speeds, or while it chops, it can move.
• A short press of the power button stops the current step, for example if something starts to boil over.
• Steam burns: tilt the lid, and the Varoma lid, away from your face when you open them.
• Varoma: lid cap off first, some slots left uncovered, speed 6 or lower, and enough water in the bowl (about 250 g, or 1 cup, turns to steam every 15 minutes). Set the hot dish on a plate when you lift it off, because it drips.
• Lift the hot simmering basket only with the spatula hook.
• No heating above speed 6, and the butterfly whisk never above speed 4 or 100°C (212°F).
• The lid has magnets near the handle: keep it away from pacemakers and other implanted devices.
• USDA safe temperatures: fish 63°C (145°F), chicken 74°C (165°F), ground meat 71°C (160°F).

What to clean after each use

Clean it after every use and let every piece dry. A full cleaning guide is coming soon, so here are just the basics:

• Between dishes, Pre-clean mode (in manual cooking) gives the bowl a quick clean. Take the butterfly whisk out first and follow the screen.
• Wash the bowl, blade, lid, lid cap, basket, butterfly whisk, spatula and Varoma by hand or in the dishwasher. Don't leave the blade soaking, and skip scouring pads and harsh cleaners.
• Dry the metal contact pins under the bowl before it goes back on the base.
• Wipe the base, unplugged, with a dry or slightly damp cloth. Never put it under the faucet.
• Check the lid and its sealing ring now and then, and never cook with a damaged lid.

Seven days from now, the box will be in the recycling, there will be sofrito in your freezer and you'll know your way around the screen. Be patient with yourself and cook one thing at a time. ¡Wepa, and buen provecho! If I learned to cook, you can too.

Adapted with permission from Life With Thermomix, the blog of Beatriz Tarrega, a Thermomix® advisor in the United Kingdom, and rewritten for American kitchens.