Hi wombat, welcome to the forum. Lovely to see you are enjoying your TMX. As far as cooking veg is concerned, if you put about 750mls of water in the bowl, the basket with your carrots and pumpkin (or potatoes) will not be sitting in water but will be steamed. It is then easy to remove the basket for mashing, either by hand or by tipping out the water, placing the butterfly in place, adding the potatoes or whatever you want to mash, add milk, butter, S & P and mix on speed 4, no higher or the butterfly may disintegrate for up to 10 seconds.