Translating to “under vacuum” in French, sous vide is a process where food is vacuum-sealed in a bag and cooked at a precise temperature in a water bath. There are a few different reasons people chose this method or style of preparing food.
- Consistency
- Taste
- Flexibility
- Waste Reduction
There are two main types of sous vide cooking methods: immersion circulator and sous vide water bath. Both methods involve cooking food at a set temperature throughout the entire process. It’s similar to using a slow cooker in that the food is cooked at a consistent temperature for an extended period of time.
Without further ado, let’s get down to some sous vide recipes. If you don’t already sous vide your food, these tasty recipes and the ease of cooking might tempt you into changing the way you cook in your home.
Pork Tenderloin Paired With Carrots And Potatoes
This recipe calls for 8 ounces of trimmed pork tenderloin seasoned with simple salt and pepper, three medium carrots trimmed, scrubbed, and split lengthwise, and three baby potatoes scrubbed and seasoned.
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The time and temperature for these ingredients varies so you’ll have to package the food separately in order for it to cook properly.
BBQ Spare Ribs
Sous vide BBQ ribs seem to stay juicier than ribs cooked any other way. You’re going to need 24 hours for the ribs to cook in the sous vide cooker and a little extra time to finish them off in the oven or (weather permitting) on the grill.
This recipe includes preseasoning with some dry rub. When the ribs are transferred from the water bath to your grill or broiler, they get some barbecue sauce added. When plated, they’re served with a sauce made from the juices of the sous vide cooking process.
Lazy Sunday Sous Vide Pot Roast
Slow cook your Lazy Sunday roast in your sous vide precision cooker, and finish off by browning the beef on your stovetop. All you need is a pound of beef chuck roast, two large carrots, one large Yukon Gold potato, and a few simple spices. Once the timer goes off on the precision cooker, you’ll brown the beef on the stovetop, make your sauce with the vegetables, and serve.
Chicken, Shrimp, And Andouille Sausage Jambalaya
If you’re looking for some amazing Cajun flavor, you’ve come to the right spot. This traditional one-pot recipe from the bayou has been elevated from stockpot to sous vide cooker. Jambalaya isn’t always easy to make but this recipe is worth it and will hit you in the taste buds. You start with your chicken, jumbo shrimp, sausage, butter, Cajun seasoning, and salt. Your second bag will have rice and all of the other delicious ingredients.
Egg Bites
Starbucks Egg Bites are extremely popular and you can make them in your own kitchen using your sous vide machine.
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Top them with anything you like, but this recipe calls for six eggs, heavy cream or cottage cheese, cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, and fresh basil. This recipe will make egg bites for a bigger family or for a couple of people to have enough for a few days.
Lamb Chops With Steamed Broccoli
These lamb chops paired with steamed broccoli makes a great low-carb meal. The lamb chops will get pan-seared before the sous vide and have a final searing once they’re finished in the water bath. Steam the broccoli in the same pan you sear the chops using juices from the chops for added flavor.
Pulled Pork Shoulder For BBQ Tacos
I love street food and carnitas are one of my favorites. Sous vide pulled pork shoulder makes it easy to have street food right in your kitchen. All you need is your pork shoulder and a favorite BBQ dry rub seasoning. Pan-sear your pork in order to give it a thick bark.
Once it’s seared, toss it in your sous vide bag, set your temperature, and wait the longest 48 hours of your cooking life. When the timer goes off, you can remove the shoulder roast and shred it for tacos or pulled pork sandwiches.
Sesame Chicken
Overcooking chicken breast is an easy thing to do, but not when you cook it using the sous vide method. This sesame chicken recipe comes with instructions for the sous vide chicken breast, as well as instructions for making the amazing sesame sauce.
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You need 1 ½ pounds of cubed chicken breast, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar for the chicken. The sesame sauce requires soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, cornstarch, chicken stock or water, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and chili garlic sauce.
Chicken Soup
There’s nothing like a hearty bowl of chicken soup so there has to be a chicken soup recipe on the list. This soup includes a variety of veggies like leeks, cauliflower, white button mushrooms, and fresh spinach. I’ve never tried this variation, but it sounds light and delicious.
Beef Barley Stew
This beef stew is loaded with vegetables, meat, and delicious goodness. Beef chuck, celery, carrots, barley, diced tomatoes, fresh spinach, and chickpeas make up this delectable stew.
French Toast Bread Pudding
You’ll find some tips about sous vide cooking with mason jars in this recipe. You will need toasted brioche cubes, and the topping consists of heavy cream, sugar, maple syrup, and berries. Call it breakfast, dessert, or a treat — but it sounds like love to my taste buds.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
I didn’t even realize this was a thing! The recipe calls for just a few simple ingredients: dark chocolate, eggs, butter, and one surprise. The dark chocolate is infused with passion fruit and the cake is topped with a vanilla bean-speckled whipped coconut cream. Sounds delicious.
Flan
When using the sous vide bathwater method for certain foods you need little mason jars. This flan recipe is delicious. You need sugar, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, eggs, and vanilla extract.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
A lot of people would never imagine that you could make chocolate chip cookies using the sous vide method but that has proven to be a myth. The recipe is a little different from the traditional ones, but these cookies are still awesome. There’s far less butter involved which means the cookie is better for you, right?!
Cheesecake 2 Ways
Mmm, you read that right! Individual servings of foolproof cheesecake. These cheesecake bombs are another great recipe. Once your tiny cheesecakes are done, you can top them with whatever you like. Some people recommend streusel since there is no graham cracker crust, but it’s all up to you.
Equipment Required For Sous Vide Cooking
There are various machines, but the sous vide immersion circulator and the sous vide water bath are two of the more common options used. Each machine has different parts used for the process.
- Sous Vide Precision Cooking Device
- Resealable Bags or Canning Jars for Food Packing
- Container for Water
Types Of Bags For Sous Vide
It is really important to use the right kind of bags when you’re using a sous vide machine for food preparation. There are a few different options.
- Resealable Bags or Jars
- Heavy Duty BPA-free Ziploc Bags
- Reusable Silicone Bags (sous vide reusable bags)
- Vacuum Sealing Bags (these work well for batch cooking)
- Canning Jars (great for beans, grains, desserts, cakes, custard)
Oh, the things you could do with a sous vide machine! Knowing just how long an item has to cook at what temperature consists of a lot of trial and error. Long ago, the only people using the sous vide method were highly experienced chefs, but we can all cook sous vide. Let us know which of these recipes are your favorite, and if you try them, feel free to share your experience with us.
Daniel Cronin says
What is a good brand of vacuum sealer/foodsaver for sous vide to get?