Cooking for One Made Easy: Sous Vide

Straight to the point: sous vide cooking makes meal prep for one INCREDIBLY easy, and INSANELY tasty.

Stasher-Art
from anovaculinary.com

Sous vide cooking involves placing your ingredients in a bag, and submerging the bag in a temperature-controlled hot water bath. The uniform heat dispersion perfectly cooks your food to the desired temperature, and holds it there until you’re ready.

It’s really great for meat, as the temperature of the water can be set to reach the exact level of doneness. Want a beautiful medium-rare ribeye? Bag it, set the temp to 129 degrees Fahrenheit, and come back in 4-6 hours. Boom. Done.

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Peppercorn-crusted flank steak. A $4 cut of meat cooked to perfection and took me literally zero effort.

Sous vide really changed my life when it came to solo dining. I really love trying new and exciting recipes, or trying my hand at really nice cuts of steak, but my problem was two-fold: how do I find the time to prepare, and cook awesome recipes between school, work, and the rest of life, and how can I avoid ruining expensive steaks on my less-than-ideal-and-definitely-busted-college-level BBQ?

Sous vide was my answer.

Season your steaks, or chicken or pork (or even vegetables!), toss them in a bag, set the desired temperature, and go off to work. At the end of the day, I have a perfect steak waiting for me. Total uniform pinkness, extremely juicy, and all requiring next to zero effort. It’s spectacular.

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Uniform pinkness (sous vide) on the left, versus pink gradient (BBQ) on the right.                         from anovaculinary.com

Sous vide cooking is more accessible than ever. I personally use the Anova Bluetooth Precision Cooker, which commonly goes on sale for around $120. They’ve also just released a new smaller model, the Anova Nano, available for an easy $99. A quick search on Amazon will show you plenty of other options as well.

Producing great meals does a lot for your mood, but doing it solo with little help can be quite the hurdle. Sous vide has allowed me to cook by myself the way I’ve always wanted, produce great results, and take minimal time out of the rest of my day.

Sous vide is easy, accessible, and I could not recommend it more for anybody trying to become more independent without sacrificing the quality of their diet.

One thought

  1. What an awesome way of demonstrating that good food can be done easily AND within a reduced budget. The cost of the precision cooker may be hefty at first but will even out as you consistently use the device over time. The investment in excellent cooking utensils and appliances is well worth it.

    The only thing I would caution is cooking meat at the temperature listed. Bacteria loves what is called the “danger zone” or between 4 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees Fahrenheit). To ensure harmful bacteria is destroyed and reduce your risk of food-borne illness (food poisoning), I would suggest cooking the meat at a slightly higher temperature. Looking forward to reading more!

    Liked by 1 person

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