The sous vide has left the realm of obscurity and now is known as a sustainable, affordable, and easy home cooking tool. It allows you to create restaurant-quality cuisine in just a fraction of the time you would use preparing your dinner the traditional way. When choosing the best sous vide cookbook for your home, you’ll want to consider the types of recipes it includes, the difficulty level of the book, and what additional information you’ll need, such as time and measurement charts. Here are my top five recommendations that can get you started on your sous vide journey today!
- Sous Vide For Everybody
- Sous Vide: Better Home Cooking
- Sous Vide Made Simple
- The Effortless Sous Vide Cookbook
- Sous Vide Cookbook: 575 Best Sous Vide Recipes
*If you’re in a hurry, I’d recommend Sous Vide For Everybody as the best one. This comprehensive sous vide guide and cookbook is published by a well-respected and high-quality company that thoroughly tests and approves all of their recipes, giving you the best chance of success at home.
Why Should I Use A Sous Vide?
While the sous vide may seem like an unusual kitchen appliance with a learning curve, it is actually quite simple to use and saves a lot of time when cooking. You will need the sous vide device itself, vacuum seal bags, a vacuum sealer, and a container (can be a big pot you already have in your home) to get started. You can even forgo the vacuum sealer and bags and just use gallon bags.
Perfect Temperatures Every Time
When you cook your food in a sous vide, you have complete control over the temperature of your food. This means that it doesn’t matter if you leave your meal in the water bath for an additional 15 minutes, or even an hour, it will still remain at the same temperature. This allows for consistency in your cooking even if you have a busy life, and ensures food safety in meats.
The Ability To Tenderize Tough Cuts Of Meat
Another great use of the sous vide is to tenderize your food. This allows you to buy more affordable tougher cuts of meat that you can leave in the water bath for a long time until it is completely tenderized. The sous vide method will also deeply infuse flavors into the meat, making it a delicious meal that is even more flavorful and tender than a crock pot dish.
Cleaner With Less Pots, Pans, and Smoke
The sous vide is completely contained in bags and water, making much less messy than a recipe cooked over the stovetop. You will usually sear your meat or vegetables for a couple minutes in a pan after it’s prepared, which won’t produce as much smoke since it’s such a short time over an open flame.
What Can I Make In A Sous Vide?
The sous vide can make a lot of common dishes that you’re familiar with and can also be a surprising tool for some less common dishes. Here are some great ideas that will keep entertained with your sous vide for years to come:
- Yogurt
- Asparagus
- Creme Brulee
- Infused Oils
- Cheese Curds
- Eggs Benedict
- A Perfect Steak
- Mashed Potatoes
- Wine Poached Pears
Sous Vide For Everybody
This sous vide cookbook is produced by America’s Test Kitchen. This company uses rigorous testing to establish the best ingredients, equipment, and cookware possible to use for your recipes. This well-trusted brand was able to create one of the most popular sous vide texts available and was the cookbook that I used to begin my sous vide journey.
In addition to staple recipes, you’ll find ideas for making some unexpected items such as cocktails or ice cream. This book is perfect for the beginner to intermediate user who is looking to increase the quality of their dishes or find a few new innovative twists on sous vide recipes.
Sous Vide: Better Home Cooking
This cookbook was written by Hugh Acheson who was the winner of 2 James Beard Awards and has created a very popular book called The Chef And The Slow Cooker that features several hands-free long-cooking recipes. He now extends into the realm of the sous vide with 90 recipes including items such as oysters, corned beef, chicken wings, and a wide variety of vegetables.
This cookbook is demystifying for sous vide users and explains additional techniques to make your food sing, such as seasoning suggestions and how to perfectly sear sous vide meats. The recipes are easy to read and are accompanied with beautiful images, as well as a few personal notes and tidbits of humor from the chef himself.
Sous Vide Made Simple
Oftentimes sous vide recipes call for rich ingredients, this cookbook focuses on lighter fare and is a great collection for those who want a lot of fresh vegetables in their dishes. It also includes globally inspired foods such as cauliflower steaks with yogurt sauce, fish tacos with mango salsa, eggplant shakshuka, and carnitas tacos with salsa verde.
This book is well laid out and easy to read, with ingredients that will often be in your pantry. It’s also very family friendly and a good source of nutritionally balanced meals for all ages and types of eaters in your family. It’s also a great resource for busy families or individuals and explains how recipes can be prepped and prepared in advance
Each dish has a “master recipe” that allows for you to prepare a large amount of sous vide meat with sub-recipes that have variations. This means that you can make up to five meals from the same single sous vide package you made at the beginning of the week!
The Effortless Sous Vide Cookbook
This comprehensive cookbook will show you how to sous vide appetizers, fish, seafood, red meat, chicken, turkey, vegetables, desserts, and beverages. Many of these recipes call for ingredients you may already have on hand or are very easily obtainable at the grocery store.
There is a “sous vide 101” section that provides plenty of background information on the device as well as useful charts and conversions. The author adds several details and pros and cons of different popular brands and their accessories to help you make choices that are best suited for your cooking needs.
Some fun recipes in this book include orange chocolate pots de creme, garlic butter lobster tails, crispy skin mashed potatoes, maui ribs, and coffee-crusted new york strip steak. These small twists on classic dishes will make your next dinner for one or dinner party a smash!
Sous Vide Cookbook: 575 Best Sous Vide Recipes
This cookbook made the list for it’s sheer quantity of recipes, and is a great option for the sous vide owner that wants to experiment with a wide variety of methods and meals. You will find recipes for all meals of the day as well as from all regions of the world, making this a good choice for those who prefer an international diet.
This cookbook was self-published and many users have noticed grammatical and editing errors and have been confused by the conversions and charts located in the back for reference. However, they still felt the recipes were clearly written and tasted great, believing it’s value exceeded the professionality of the author.
Summary
As you can see, there are literally thousands of recipes that you can make with a sous vide. To avoid overwhelm, focus on a cuisine or a set of ingredients that you enjoy the most. Make sure to throw a couple of left-field recipes into the fold every so often to keep yourself learning and engaged with the process.
What’s your favorite recipe to make in the sous vide? Let me know in the comments below!
