Sous Vide Cooking – What’s all the rage about?

Starbucks introduced sous vide egg bites in January, and they sell out nearly every day.  Up until a few months ago, I hadn’t ordered them because I didn’t even know what sous vide meant.  I finally tried them since I’m trying to eat less carbs, and now I understand all the hype.   They are delicious and relatively healthy.

That innocent breakfast order sucked me down a rabbit hole. There is an entire sous vide cult!  Seriously, there are sous vide message boards, sous vide magazines, entire cook books of sous vide recipes, sous vide groups, etc. Who knew?!?

So what is it?

Sous Vide is French for “Under Vacuum”. Food is put in a vacuum-sealed bag and cooked in a water bath.  It is often referred to as “precision” cooking because it comes out perfectly every time. 

My Experience

My husband and I love to cook; so, of course we wanted to try it out.  We couldn’t find one to rent and didn’t know anyone that had one; so, we ended up buying one.  (I posted it for rent on Loanables if you’re interested.)

We cooked a pork tenderloin (see recipe we followed here).  It is so easy:  seal the ingredients; set the temperature and timer; sear; enjoy!  While it was cooking, we visited with our company instead of slaving over a hot stove!  It turned out great.  What we found is that you need to season more than you would for a grill to get the same flavor, but the meat is definitely more juicy and tender.

My favorite part…

It was so easy to clean up.  Throw away the bag, dump out the water, and Voila – you’re done!

Here are some other recipes that we’ve tried and enjoyed:

Sous Vide Filet Mignon Recipe (You can get great quality cuts at Costco for $22.99 per pound.)

Sous Vide Egg Recipe (If you love Eggs Benedict, you will love these!)

Sous Vide Thin Cut French Fry Recipe (These are amazing.)

I love this list of 17 Foods You Didn’t Know You Could Cook Sous Vide.

Here are 2 Secret Ingredients we Love:

Have fun on your journey down the rabbit hole – we did 😉