Sous vide Christmas recipes

Want to cook sous vide this Christmas? Excellent plan! Christmas is the time of year when many hobby chefs unpack. Visiting the whole family can be challenging at times. Thanks to sous vide, you can already prepare a lot of dishes. So you no longer have to stress about cooking.

7 sous vide Christmas recipes

We have highlighted 7 different recipes below for inspiration. Of course you don’t have to prepare the entire menu sous vide, but it is certainly achievable with the right preparation.

Sous vide starters

Asparagus with miso tahini sauce

Do you want to take your green asparagus to a top level? Then this is the recipe. We prepare the asparagus sous vide and serve it with wild garlic crumbs, chili pepper pickle and miso-tahini sauce.

Ingredients (4 persons)

• 500 gr green asparagus
• 1 tbsp butter
• salt
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 6 tbsp tahini
• 4 chili peppers
• 1 tbsp mustard seed
• 1 tbsp coriander seed
• 100 ml rice vinegar (without added sugars)
• 60 gr sugar
• 2 tbsp unroasted sesame oil
• 2 tbsp finely chopped wild garlic (or chives)
• 50 g panko

1. Preparation

   Wash the green asparagus and cut off the back. Cut the chili peppers into thin rings. Then finely chop the garlic. Preheat the water bath to 84 °C.

2. chili pepper pickle

   For the chili pepper pickle, place the chili peppers in a heatproof bowl. Toast the mustard and coriander seeds in a saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the rice vinegar and sugar, along with 100 ml of water. Bring to a boil and then immediately turn off the heat. Pour the vinegar mixture over the chiles and allow to cool. Place the pickle in the refrigerator until ready to use.

3. asparagus

   Meanwhile, arrange the asparagus in a single layer in a sous vide bag; use 2 bags if necessary. Add the butter and some salt. Vacuum the bag(s). Cook the asparagus in the water bath for 20 minutes.

4. panko

   Meanwhile, stir the miso paste in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of water. Add the tahini and stir until smooth. For the wild garlic crumb, heat the sesame oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the wild garlic and panko. Stir fry until the panko is golden brown. Add some extra sesame oil if the crumb threatens to burn. Season the wild garlic crumb to taste with some salt.

5. Complete

   Remove the sous vide bag(s) from the water bath and cut open. Remove the asparagus and divide them among the plates. Spoon some of the miso tahini sauce over it. Serve the sous vide poached eggs on the side if desired. Garnish with the chili pepper pickle and plenty of wild garlic crumbs.

Spicy Brussels sprouts

Recipes are shared daily in our Facebook group . This time a recipe from our member Richard. Sous vide Brussels sprouts with a spicy touch. Richard normally doesn’t like Brussels sprouts, but this recipe makes him want to make them more often!

Ingredients (2-4 persons)

• 400 gr Brussels sprouts
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sambal
• 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic

1. Preparation

   Wash the Brussels sprouts and heat the water container to 85 degrees.

2. vacuuming

   Fill the bag with Brussels sprouts together with the soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sambal and garlic (pressed). Vacuum the bag and let it cook for 1.5 hours.

3. Bake

   After 1.5 hours, remove the bag from the water and fry the Brussels sprouts in a hot pan for a few minutes in all the juices. Enjoy!

Sous vide main dishes

Beef Wellington

Sous vide beef wellington! Quite a bit of work to make, but the result is delicious!

Ingredients (4 persons)

• 500 gr beef tenderloin
• 3 tbsp mustard
• 300 gr chestnut mushrooms
• 1 egg
• 1 onion
• 10 sheets of puff pastry
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 150 g Parma ham
• butter
• olive oil
• pepper
• salt

1. Preparation

   Wash and roughly chop the chestnut mushrooms. Then place them in a food processor with a dash of olive oil and blend to a fine texture. Small pieces of mushrooms may still be visible. Turn on the sous vide device at 54 degrees and let the water heat up.

2. filling

   Cut an onion into very small cubes. Crush the 5 garlic cloves. Brown in a pan and after a few minutes add the mushrooms. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes on medium heat. Add another knob of butter halfway through and let it melt. Season with some salt and pepper. Then turn the pan off.

3. Roll

   After 2 hours, remove the tenderloin from the sous vide bath and let it drain. Then fry the meat on high heat for 1 minute per side. With a knife you can then smear the meat with the mustard. Line the workbench with plastic wrap and place the Parma ham side by side. Make sure the sides of the ham overlap.

4. foil

   Spread the mushroom mixture on the Parma ham. Then place the meat on the mixture and close the meat with the foil. Try to do this as tight as possible. Then place in the freezer before 30 minutes. Remove it from the freezer after 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.

5. Oven

   Carefully remove the foil. Roll the puff pastry sheets into one large sheet and place around the tenderloin. Beat an egg and brush the puff pastry with the egg yolk. Place the beef wellington in the oven at 220 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes. Remove from the oven when the beef wellington has a golden brown color

beef bourguignon

Boeuf Bourguignon is a well-known French stew dish with red wine. The meat is stewed in red Burgundy with mushrooms, onions and bacon. It is officially a French peasant dish. The meat needs to simmer for a long time to cook. Because it has to stew for a long time, I wanted to prepare it sous vide. Sous vide cooking makes the meat extremely tender and ensures that the meat does not dry out.

Ingredients (6 persons):

• 1.5 kg beef steaks or sukade
• 3 winter carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 150 g pancetta
• 1 bottle of red wine (burgundy)
• 3 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 bay leaves
• flat leaf parsley
• peppercorns
• 400 gr veal stock
• ghee or butter
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper
• mushrooms
• silver onions (optional)

1. Preparation

   Pat the meat dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt ghee in the pan and fry the meat in whole pieces so that it loses less juice. I got this tip from a good friend. Fry the meat for 2-3 minutes per side so that it browns. After searing, set the meat aside to cool.

2. pancetta

   Cut the pancetta into strips and fry in the same pan as the meat is cooked. Clean and cut the carrot and celery into cubes / slices and fry them with the pancetta. Peel the onions, chop them and add them. Finally add the garlic. Stir so that everything is mixed.

3. Groente

   If the vegetables are slightly discolored, add the red wine. Stir the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the crust. Let the wine reduce slightly and then add the veal stock. Add the thyme, parsley, peppercorns and bay leaves and let the sauce reduce.

4. Sauce

   Cut the meat into cubes and add it to the reduced sauce. The meat will lose some of the meat juices during cutting. Some juices will also have been released during the cooling process. Don’t throw this away! Add the meat juices to the sauce. Stir everything well.

5. sous vide

   Let the meat/sauce cool slightly. Vacuum the whole thing. I myself do between 400 – 600 grams for 2 people. Based on the steps above, there is enough for 3 bags. Bring the water to 74°C and then place the vacuum-sealed meat in the water for 24 hours.

6. To serve

   Fry the mushrooms with a chopped onion (and the silver onions) until they are golden brown. Cut open a bag of Boeuf Bourguignon and pour the liquid into a pan. Assess whether the liquid / sauce needs to be bound. If she needs to be bound, this can be done with butter and flour. Then mix 25 grams of melted butter with 25 grams of flour in a bowl. Stir the flour and butter into the sauce so that it thickens. Bring everything to a boil.

7. Complete

   This sauce does not need to be bound. Add the meat and mushrooms to the sauce and heat it. Make sure the meat does not boil. Serve with potatoes or rice. Serve with a red Burgundy.

8. Store

   If not everything is eaten immediately, follow the next steps: Remove the bags with Boeuf Bourguignon from the water of the sous vide. Place them in ice water so that they cool immediately. Make sure that the Boeuf Bourguignon has cooled down within a few minutes and put it in the freezer. If you want to eat it, you can take a bag from the freezer and heat it up in the sous vide at 74°C in 2 hours.

Pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce

A classic! Tenderloin with Mushroom Cream Sauce. When you prepare pork tenderloin once sous vide, you will never want anything else. This recipe is one of the recipes from Bas Robben’s book Sous Vide.

Ingredients (2 persons)

• 2 pork tenderloins
• salt
• pepper
• 1 nutmeg
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 75 gr butter
• 250 gr chestnut mushrooms
• 250 gr oyster mushrooms
• 200 ml whipped cream
• 200 ml meat stock
• 1 tbsp brandy (optional)
• neutral oil
• 10 g parsley leaves

1. Preparation

   Preheat the water bath to 56.5°C. Season the pork tenderloin with salt and pepper, and grate over a little nutmeg. Place the tenderloins in a single layer in a sous vide bag. Place the sprigs of thyme and 25 grams of butter (about 2 tablespoons) on top of the meat. Vacuum the bag.

2. Mushroom cream sauce

   Cook the tenderloins in the water bath for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Start on the mushroom cream sauce 30 minutes before the meat is ready. Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the chestnut mushrooms and oyster mushrooms and stir-fry for 8 to 10 minutes until they have lost all their moisture and begin to brown. Add salt and pepper. Add the crushed garlic and fry for 30 seconds.

3. meat fond

   Add the whipped cream and the meat stock. Increase the heat under the pan and let the sauce reduce by half. Taste the sauce and season with salt if necessary. If you want to add cognac, now is the time. Keep the sauce warm over low heat.

4. Bake

   Remove the sous vide bag from the water bath and cut open. Remove the pork tenderloins from the bag. Pour the released liquid and the melted butter into the mushroom cream sauce. Pat the meat dry. Heat a heavy skillet over high heat. Add a little neutral oil and place the pork tenderloins in the pan. Brown them on all sides over a high heat for a maximum of 2 minutes.

5. To serve

   Remove the pork tenderloin from the pan and cut into thick slices. Stir the parsley through the mushroom cream sauce. Serve the meat with the sauce.

Sous vide desserts

Creme brulee

Creme brulee. The classic custard-like dessert with a crunchy sugar coating on top. You can read how to prepare the perfect crème brûlée sous vide in this recipe. The secret is the sous vide technique that makes this possible. Because by preparing the crème brûlèe sous vide, it is cooked below 85 degrees. In the recipe below, the crème brûlée is prepared in small glass jars. You can serve them directly in the same jars and burn them. The result is a smooth and creamy dessert with a crunchy layer of caramel.

Ingredients (6 persons)

• 150 g egg yolk
• 500 ml cream
• 100 g sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 g salt

1. Get everything ready

   Take a container, pan or the sous vide container and fill it with warm water. Set the sous vide device to 82 °C and let the water heat up.

2. Start with the cream

   Then mix the egg yolks, sugar and salt together in a bowl and beat with a whisk until smooth. Meanwhile, heat the cream together with the vanilla seeds in a pan to about 70 °C. Let this steep for about 5 minutes so that the vanilla flavor is absorbed well. Then pour the hot cream over the egg mixture while stirring the mixture until it becomes firm.

3. Fill the jars

   Divide the mixture between the jars and close the lids well. Carefully place the jars in the sous vide container and let them cook for at least 1 hour at 82 degrees.

4. Brûlée de crème

   After they are cooked, they must be refrigerated immediately. The fastest way to do this is to use a container with ice water and to cool them in it. Once they’ve cooled down, it’s time to burn them. Place a layer of sugar on top of the cream. The more sugar you add, the crispier the layer will be. Grab a crème brûlée burner. Burn the sugar until it is a nice golden brown and keep the burner about 20 centimeters away. Once you have reached the color you want, give the sugar some time to harden. Enjoy!

Stewed pear

The stewed pear is a real all-rounder. Many people know the stewed pear only as a side dish with game in winter. Actually, that is a shame, because the stewed pear is delicious in every season. You can use the sous vide pear in pies, salads, desserts and cakes. Nevertheless, these sous vide stewing pears go perfectly with game and stewed dishes. The reason for this is the aromatic spices, full-bodied red wine and juicy pears. In addition, the pears have the perfect balance of sweet and sour for a dessert.

Ingredients (4 persons)

• 4 pears
• 700 ml red wine
• 125 gr sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1 juniper berry

1. Make the marinade

   A good choice of wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Syrah. Put all the ingredients except the cooking pears into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil down to 1/3. Then sieve the liquid and remove the spices.

2. Set the sous vide device to 82 °C

   Take a pan or sous vide container and fill it with hot water. Set the sous vide device to 82 °C.

3. Peel the pears

   Peel the pears and then cut them in half. Cut out the core and the seeds. Then divide the liquid and the pears between the sous vide bags.

4. Cooking

   Place the sous vide bag in the water bath and set the timer for 60 minutes. Check every now and then whether the stewed pears are all right by gently squeezing them. The cooking time depends on the ripeness of the pear. If the pear is not ripe, it should be cooked longer. This can be 15 to 30 minutes longer.

5. Serve!

   The pears are good as soon as they can be squeezed gently but still retain their shape. Remove the pears from the water bath as soon as they are ready. Serve immediately or cool back in ice water. The liquid can be used as a sauce.

6. Make it even tastier

   Make the sous vide pear complete with for example: ice cream and biscuits.