I do the majority of my meal prep using sous vide. Using your sous vide cooker it becomes much easier to cook large amounts of food that you can then store for use later and an easy weeknight dinner because most of the heavy lifting is already done!
How to Cook Sous Vide from Frozen
One of the great advantages of sous vide cooking is leveraging your cooking time. Cooking batches of meat, fish, poultry, or vegetables at once, then quick-chilling, and freezing them for later use means that dinner can be ready quickly when you arrive home tired and hungry.Just follow these easy steps:
Buy the economy pack of steak, chicken, or fish.
Portion the proteins as individual servings (or servings suitable for your needs) into cooking pouches.
Add your favorite seasonings and vacuum seal.
There are two ways of using your freezer to save you time:
OPTION 1:
Cook – Chill – Freeze – ReheatSeason and vacuum seal batches of foods that cook at the same temperature and cook them all together to save time. (Beef, lamb, and pork together at 134F/56.5C to 140F/60C; white meat chicken or turkey together at 146F/63.5C; dark meat chicken or turkey together at 176F/80C.)
When theyve finished cooking, quick chill the pouches in an ice water bath (half ice/half water) for at least 30 to 45 minutes.Label with contents and date and freeze for up to one year.Reheat the cooked food from a thawed or chilled state in the SousVide Supreme at the cooking temperature for 45 minutes per inch of thickness. If reheating from frozen, please allow an additional 30 minutes.Sauce or sear the food, as usual, if desired.
OPTION 2:
Freeze – CookSeason and vacuum seal individual portions of meat, poultry, game, fish or seafood.Label with contents and date and freeze the pouches, uncooked, for use up to 6 weeks.Cook from thawed or frozen in the SousVide Supreme at the ideal (desired) cooking temperature, adding 30 minutes to the cooking time to allow for thawing in the water bath if cooking from frozen.Sauce or sear the food, as usual, if desired.
Another helpful hint: Different types of previously cooked foods in pouches can be reheated at the same time in the water oven, even though they might have cooked at different temperatures originally. For instance, vegetables that were cooked at 183F/84C can reheat in the water bath with meat that cooked (or is cooking) at 134F/56.5C. Always select the lower of the ideal cooking temperatures to reheat different types of food together, in this example, set the temperature to 134F/56.5C.
HOW TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY WHILE PREPARING HEALTHY, DELICIOUS MEALS
Please see the following guidelines for timing, and remember to quick chill cooked food before refrigerating or freezing.
| Pouches of seasoned uncooked food | Cook immediately | Refrigerate up to 2 days | Freeze up to 2 weeks |
| Pouches of cooked food | Serve immediately | Quick chill (see below) and refrigerate up to 2 days | Quick chill (see below) and freeze up to 1 year for meats, and up to a few weeks for vegetables. |
Is Sous Vide The Best Way to Meal Prep?
FAQ
Can you cook a whole meal in a sous vide?
How much food can you sous vide at once?
What is a disadvantage of sous vide?
Can you cook multiple things in sous vide?
What is sous vide cooking?
It’s called sous vide cooking. And while it might not be the simplest technique in the world, it takes all the guesswork out of cooking meats, poultry, vegetables, and eggs. For some folks, knowing that their food is guaranteed to be cooked perfectly is worth the additional complexity that comes with sous vide cooking.
What can you do with a sous vide?
Hollandaise and béchamel, aioli, gravies, syrups, and purées are just a few of the ways you can effortlessly achieve that five-star finish for your meals. Sous vide also amplifies the flavors in all sorts of soups and chowders, giving you a hearty winter meal in a bag.
Is sous vide a good way to cook a steak?
Thanks to the immersion method, and the fact that water is a good conductor of heat, the temperature of the water and the temperature of the food are always effectively equalor at least, they equalize over time. One downside of sous vide cooking is that it might take an hour to cook a steak.
Can You sous vide on a stovetop?
In theory, you could sous vide on the stovetop with a pot of water, using a candy thermometer to monitor the water temperature. You’d have to make ongoing micro-adjustments to the heat to keep the water at a constant temperature, however, which might be more trouble than it’s worth. A vacuum sealer or zip-top freezer bags.