The Best Sous Vide Meal Prep Ideas for Beginners

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Learn how to make meal prepping easy with these fun and delicious sous vide meal prep ideas. Home cooks can have easy, delicious sous vide meals ready to go for the whole week with just a little prep work!

Using the sous vide method to meal prep for the week is an absolute game changer! If you are a sous vide beginner, check out these posts below before getting started:

• Benefits of sous vide cooking
• What is sous vide cooking?
• Best sous vide machines (sous vide immersion circulators)
• Best sous vide bags
• Best sous vide containers

Otherwise, we're going to delve into some great ideas to get started with sous vide meal prep. We'll cover the best foods to sous vide, sous vide cooking from frozen, cooking in bulk, and some amazing sous vide ideas for meal prepping!

Benefits of Sous Vide Batch Cooking

Using the sous vide to food prep can revolutionize your meal prep routine. Imagine being able to cook all your meals for the week so you have precooked sous vide meals for any time of the day or week.

There are so many benefits to using sous vide for meal prep! You can even make a ton of meals in advance, and freeze them until ready to use. Imagine having a month's worth of meals frozen and ready to go? How convenient!

Time Efficiency

Sous vide meal prep offers a time-efficient solution for busy individuals. You can spend a few hours over a weekend preparing a variety of meals that you can easily heat up and eat throughout the week. Once cooked sous vide, the food can be quickly seared or reheated during the week for a hassle-free meal.

Batch Cooking

Batch cooking proteins like chicken breasts, steaks, or fish fillets in individual sealed portions stored in the refrigerator or freezer allows you to pull them out as needed. This method ensures you always have a protein source ready for your meals.

Batch cooking also makes it easy to make meals in advance and freeze them so you can meal prep for more than just the upcoming week. And frozen meals are super easy to reheat in the water bath before serving.

Versatility

Sous vide is not limited to proteins; it's equally effective for vegetables, eggs, and even desserts. In addition to cooking a variety of foods, you can also use all different types of seasonings so your meals are never boring or repetitive!

We use seasonings like gochujang, soy sauce, miso paste and harissa to really amp up our meals - use whatever you'd like!

Portion Control

By sealing individual servings, you can easily manage your intake, helping you maintain a balanced and healthy diet. This is actually one of my favorite parts.

Whether you are meal prepping to help with health, or just convenience, it is all portioned out for you. No more overeating unless you make a concerted effort to heat up another meal...

Stress-Free Dinners

After a long day, the last thing you want to do is spend hours in the kitchen. With sous vide meal prep, stress-free dinners become a reality. Reheat your pre-cooked sous vide meals in a matter of minutes, leaving you with more time to unwind and enjoy your evening.

Guys, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love doing this. I LOVE to cook (that's why I run a food site), but when I'm busy, it is the most convenient thing ever to just heat and eat.

And that doesn't mean it's not delicious, because it is. That's part of what makes sus vide awesome - it's convenient and delicious!

Sous Vide Meal Prep Planning

Now that we understand the benefits and basics of sous vide meal prep, lets dive into some of the more nitty gritty details.

Planning Your Meals

Before diving into sous vide meal prep, the first step is to plan your meals for the week. Consider the proteins, vegetables, and sides you want to include. Sous vide is versatile and can be used for a wide range of foods, from steak and chicken to vegetables and desserts.

Browse through sous vide recipes and choose a variety of proteins, vegetables, and sides that align with your goals and preferences. Consider recipes that share similar cooking temperatures and times, allowing you to optimize the use of your sous vide machine (I included some options below of what proteins and vegetables can be cooked together).

Based on your selected recipes, create a detailed meal plan for the week. Outline each day's breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This plan will serve as a roadmap during your prep, ensuring you have all the necessary ingredients on hand.

With your meal plan in hand, make a comprehensive shopping list. Check your pantry and refrigerator for staple ingredients, and note any items you need to purchase.

Before starting the sous vide process, prepare ingredients by washing, chopping, and portioning them according to your recipes. Having everything ready beforehand streamlines the cooking process and minimizes interruptions.

Seasoning and Flavoring

Season your food with your favorite herbs, spices, and marinades before sealing it in the vacuum-sealed bag. Since sous vide cooking locks in flavors, the ingredients infuse with the food during the cooking process, resulting in a more intense and delicious flavor.

Sous vide cooking provides an excellent opportunity to experiment with flavors. Try different marinades, herbs, and spices to discover new and exciting combinations that enhance your meals.

Vacuum Sealing

Place the seasoned food in vacuum seal bags and remove the air using a vacuum sealer. Ensure the bag is tightly sealed to prevent any water from entering during the sous vide process. Double-check for leaks or loose seals to avoid potential contamination.

If you don't have a vacuum sealer, no worries. You can use a ziplock freezer bag and use the water displacement method to remove the air from the bag.

What is the Water Displacement Method?

The displacement method is where you slowly submerge a ziplock bag in water pushing the air out of the top of the bag (the bag should be slightly open at the top to allow air to escape).

Use a clip (I use sous vide magnets) to clip the bag to the side to keep it from floating and getting air and/or water inside.

Precise Temperature Settings

Set the sous vide precision cooker to the desired temperature for your specific food. Different proteins and vegetables require different temperatures for optimal results. You will likely need to cook your protein(s) before/after your vegetables as veggies cook at a much higher temperature.

Cooking Time

While the process takes longer than traditional methods, much of the cooking is hands off and the results are well worth it. Sous vide allows you to achieve perfect doneness with minimal risk of overcooking.

Leverage the benefits of sous vide batch cooking. For proteins like chicken, beef, or pork, prepare larger quantities than needed for one meal. You can either cook in individual bags, or cook it in one bag and portion it into individual servings once done cooking for easy access throughout the week. Personally, we find using individual bags to cook enough for one meal work the best.

Labeling and Dating

When batch cooking, label and date each vacuum-sealed bag before storing it in the fridge/freezer. This practice helps you keep track of the freshness of your meals and prevents any items from being forgotten in the freezer.

Make sure the items have been cooled for 20-30 minutes in an ice bath before storage in the fridge or freezer to stop any bacteria growth.

Finishing Techniques

Once the sous vide process is complete, your food is technically cooked, but it might lack the appealing sear or crust. To enhance texture and flavor, finish the food using alternative methods such as searing, grilling, or broiling. This step adds the perfect finishing touch to your sous vide-prepared meals.

I recommend doing this last finishing step right before you get ready to serve it. For instance, store a sous vide steak in the fridge, and when you're ready to eat it take it out, pat it dry and sear it before serving.

Sous Vide Meals for Meal Prepping

Now that we've covered the basics on how to get your meal plan prepared, let's take a look at some sous vide meal ideas for meal prep.

There are so many different options and recipes you can use for sous vide meal planning. Below I've created very basic options, with links to some more recipes in each category. From there, be creative!

Chicken

Sous vide chicken breast is one of the best high protein, low fat options for meal prepping. For the best results, we season boneless, skinless chicken breast with salt and pepper, vacuum seal, and cook in a 140°F water bath for 2-3 hours. Add 30 minutes to make sous vide bone in chicken breast.

Here are some recipes and other flavor options to try:

• Sous vide garlic butter chicken
• Sous vide frozen chicken breast (yes, you can cook chicken straight from frozen by adding an extra 30 minutes!)
• Sous vide teriyaki chicken (use this recipe for teriyaki sauce, but cook the breasts per the above)
• Cook it with this BBQ sauce
• Add 1-2 slices of lemon in the bag while cooking
• Add fresh herbs to the bag with some olive oil or butter
• Add any seasonings you like - honey, mustard, miso, cajun seasoning, bbq seasoning, etc. etc.
• Sous vide stuffed chicken breast (be creative with the stuffing!)
• Use the chicken to make tacos, burritos, rice bowls, salads, chicken salad, etc.
• Check out this ultimate sous vide chicken guide for even more info!

You can also meal prep chicken thighs and legs. Season them with salt and pepper (or any of the above options), vacuum seal and cook in a 155°F to 160°F for 4-6 hours. Sous vide is the best way to meal prep chicken!

Pork

Because pork chops cook at the same temperature as chicken breast, you can cook bags of pork chops with your bags of chicken breasts to mix it up a little. We cook seasoned (salt and pepper) pork chops at 140°F for 2-4 hours. Try some of these options as well:

• Sous vide pork chops with creamy apple gravy
• Sous vide boneless pork chops
• Sous vide bone-in pork chops with tomato glaze
• You can also make these with BBQ sauce - or make this pulled pork which is easy was well (but cooks at a different temp)
• Serve it with a creamy mustard sauce, remoulade sauce, apple chutney, or whatever you like with your pork chops.
• Again, any seasonings you like can work on pork chops.

You can also cook pork loin at about 135° for 6 hours. It's an easy and healthy option to get several meals out of one pork loin. Try this sous vide pork loin recipe.

Pork benefits from a quick hot sear after it cooks, so you can sear it after it comes out of the water bath, or sear right before you eat it.

Beef

Beef cooks at a different temperature than chicken and pork, so you will need to cook beef separately. For your typical steak (sirloin, ribeye, strip, etc.) the best temperature is to cook it at 131°F for 2-3 hours for a nice medium rare steak. Season it with salt and pepper, or your favorite steak seasoning, before cooking.

You'll definitely want to check out this complete guide to sous vide steak for some different options. Try some of these as well:

• Sous vide ribeye
• Sous vide sirloin
• Sous vide tri tip
• Sous vide frozen steak
• Cook beef with fresh herbs in the bag (don't use butter when cooking beef)
• Steak is amazing serve with traditional chimichurri - try this red chimichurri or cilantro chimichurri too!

In addition to steak, you can also make roasts in advance and serve them on sandwiches, tacos, salads, etc. These make more so are great when feeding families! A general chuck roast would be seasoned with salt and pepper (use plenty of seasoning for larger cuts like this) and cooked at 135°F for 36 hours. Try these other recipes as well:

• Sous vide london broil
• Sous vide pot roast
• Sous vide eye of round
• Sous vide sirloin tip roast

Beef definitely needs to be seared after it cooks in the water bath. You can sear it after it comes out of the water bath, or sear right before you eat it, which I recommend.

Eggs

Sous vide eggs definitely take longer to cook than traditional, but come out so perfect you'll never go back! Plus, they are great for meal prepping because you can cook a lot at the same time!

There are many different ways to cook sous vide eggs so it's impossible to cover them all here. You can make sous vide hard boiled eggs by cooking them (in the shell) in a 165°F water bath for 1 hour, and ice bathing them for 30 minutes after. The yolk comes out perfect and creamy. Try these other recipes too:

• Sous vide soft boiled eggs
• Sous vide poached eggs
• Sous vide egg bites (ultimate meal prep breakfast!)

You can use sous vide eggs as a snack, pair them with some of the vegetable sides below, use them on salads, or part of one of these sous vide breakfast recipes.

Seafood

Seafood can be a great option for meal planning as it is healthy and doesn't typically need a sear after cooking. That said, when reheating sous vide fish or seafood, the best way will be in the water bath to avoid overcooking - the microwave can be a killer for seafood!

Fish is generally cooked at around 115° to 120° for 30-45 minutes, but each fish can be slightly different (higher temps will result in firmer fish, lower temps closer to sashimi-like fish). For a simple fish recipe, just season it with salt, let it sit 30 minutes to brine, put a pad of butter or olive oil in the sous vide bag and cook.

When cooking multiple pieces of fish at a time, using oil or butter will help prevent them from sticking together in the bag.

Check out these recipes and options and also this complete sous vide fish guide:

• I love putting a little white miso paste mixed with butter in the bag for umami flavor
• Sous vide tuna
• Sous vide salmon
• Sous vide shrimp - great with old bay seasoning!
• Sous vide swordfish
• Serve shellfish with this seafood butter sauce or this eel sauce

You can cook multiple types of fish at the same time as long as the cooking temp for each one is compatible (check the recipes above or in the sous vide fish guide).

Vegetables

Cooking vegetables sous vide ensures they stay tender crisp and perfectly cooked! Most vegetables cook between 185°F to 190°F for about 1 hour, with a few exceptions.

Vegetables are great with simple salt and pepper seasoning and a touch of butter or olive oil, but try these recipes and options for sous vide side dishes as well:

• Put 1-2 slices of lemon in the bag or a pinch of lemon or orange zest
• Sous vide beets (they are cooked in vinegar and delicious) are perfect eaten alone or put in a salad
• Add some Dijon mustard and honey to make honey Dijon sauce for vegetables (great for sous vide carrots!)
• Sous vide green beans

Starch/Carbs

Alright, we're not cooking rice sous vide, though the best rice for meal prep is this Instant Pot white rice or Instant Pot wild rice, which goes great with some of these other meat based sous vide meal prep recipes.

Basic sous vide mini potatoes can be cooked at 190°F for 1 hour. Just put some garlic powder, salt, pepper and butter or olive oil in the bag to season them and you can make a giant batch to last all week! You can also try these potato ideas:

• Sous vide sweet potatoes
• Put fresh herbs and olive oil or butter in the bags while cooking
• Sous vide baked potato (these come out so creamy and delicious - better than microwaving them)
• Use spices like paprika, truffle zest, garlic and onion powder, cumin, and/or dried herbs when cooking your potatoes

Desserts

So, you may or may not want to include desserts as part of your meal plan. If you're meal planning for health reasons, this section is probably not for you. If you just want to have everything ready for the week and you love dessert, you're in the right place.

Most sous vide desserts are made in individual 4 ounce canning jars, so you'll want to get some of these. The recipes have more ingredients and steps, so I won't list them all here, but below are some recipes I do recommend.

They all have flavor options included, and for more in depth info, check out this sous vide dessert guide!

• Sous vide custard
• Sous vide cheesecake
• Sous vide creme brulee
• Sous vide pots de creme

And while not a dessert, you don't want to sleep on this sous vide yogurt for breakfast!

For more recipe ideas, check out all the sous vide recipes on the blog, or check out my Sous Vide Cookbook on Amazon!

Food Safety

The last thing we want to discuss briefly is food safety. It is important to adhere to proper food safety guidelines throughout the sous vide meal prep process. Ensure your equipment is clean, and always follow recommended cooking and storage temperatures to prevent foodborne illnesses.

Sous vide is actually safer than traditional cooking in many ways as it does allow you to pasteurize your meat which eliminates much of the bacteria and helps it to stay good longer. The exception is fish as we can't cook it long enough to pasteurize without turning it to mush. Be sure to buy good quality fish, not just for sous vide, but any time!

Whenever you are cooking in advance, food should be placed in an ice bath for 20-30 minutes before putting it in the fridge or freezer. This brings the temperature down enough to inhibit bacteria growth before storing it.

Conclusion

Remember, sous vide cooking is incredibly versatile, so feel free to experiment with different flavors, herbs, and marinades to suit your taste preferences.

With these recipes, you'll have a variety of sous vide pre made meals to enjoy throughout the week, making your meal prep routine both exciting and convenient.

Do you use sous vide to meal prep? Leave a comment below and let us know how you do it!