Oh So Simple Sous Vide Carrots Glazed

Have you ever thought about cooking sous vide vegetables? Did you know you can? Sous vide heightens the natural sweetness of carrots while preserving all of the great nutrients, leaving you with an especially delicious and nutritious dish!

Today I’m going to share exactly how to take your raw carrots and turn them into delectable perfectly cooked glazed sous vide carrots. This may well be your go to method for cooking carrots going forward!

Let’s do a quick recap about what sous vide cooking is and why you should try it with your carrots.

Sous vide (pronounced “soo-veed”) is a French term. The sous vide translation is literally “under vacuum”. In the sous vide method, you vacuum seal food in a sous vide bag (this could be Ziploc bags or any other type of plastic bag with all the air removed) and immerse them in a vessel of water.

This water displacement method ensures that your food is uniformly cooked to the exact temperature you desire. The end result is perfectly cooked food!

Why Sous Vide Your Carrots?

Sous vide cooking provides a boost in flavor and a texture completely different from boiled carrots. When carrots are cooked in vacuum sealed bags, they’re able to fully absorb the spices and aromatics being added to them.

Like your carrots especially buttery, add some butter to the bag prior to sealing. Do you enjoy the taste of thyme with your carrots? If so, add some fresh thyme; a little goes a long way. You get the picture; it’s easy to add the flavors you love with carrots and the sous vide accentuates those flavors.

How Nutritious are Carrots?

We’ve all heard carrot is good for your eyes, but how nutritious are they? Very nutritious is the short answer.

According to Healthline, carrots are great source for beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and cancer fighting antioxidants. They are a great tasty option for weight loss, lower cholesterol, and improved eye health. See the Healthline article for a more fulsome write-up on carrots nutrition.

Sous Vide Carrots Time and Temperature

Like most food, how long you sous vide your carrots depends on what temperature you’re cooking them at. Here are a few options I recommend:

Sous Vide Carrot Temperature Chart

Standard Sous Vide Temp and Time: 183°F for 1 Hour 

This is the best way to sous vide your carrots, in my opinion. Low temperatures result in perfectly cooked carrots every time.

Quick Sous Vide Temp and Time: 194°F for 15-25 Minutes

Short on time? You can get cooked carrots in about 15 minutes at a high temperature. Be sure to check your carrots at 15 minutes to see if they’re tender enough. If not, cook them for another 5-10 minutes.

Extended Sous Vide Temp and Time: 176°F for 1.5-2 Hours

If you know you’re heading out for a while and need a more time for them to passively cook, you can sous vide them for 90 to 120 minutes at 176°F. I’d check them at 90 minutes and add more time in 15-minute increments if necessary.

How to Know When Carrots are Done

No matter what method you use from above, you still need to have a plan to figure out if they’re done cooking! The last thing you want is to serve carrots that are still a little too hard and turn that perfect side dish into a not-so-great carrot side dish that nobody wants to eat.

The only way to know if your carrots are done are to check them! Take the bag out of the sous vide bath, open it up and taste one. What you’re looking for in the carrot is the slightest bit of resistance to bite without being the least bit mushy. If the carrot is not done, seal them back and put them back in the water for longer.

One easy thing to do so you don’t mess up the vacuum seal of your bag, is to create two separate bags to cook your carrots! Have one smaller bag of carrots and one main one.

I’d use something simple like a zip lock bag with the air removed for your smaller bag so you can unseal and seal with ease. You can check the smaller bag for the doneness of a carrot without messing with all of your carrots.

What Type of Carrots To Use

The beauty of cooking carrots in the sous vide is you can use any type of carrots! I truly just use whatever carrots I have on hand when I make this dish.

You can use whole baby carrots, carrots from the farmers market, grocery store carrots or even rainbow carrots! The options are endless. Just remember, the smaller your carrots or pieces of carrots, the less time they should take to sous vide relatively.

If you are preparing sous vide baby carrots, I would check them at 20 minutes when cooking at 183°F / 84°C.

Expert Tips

1. To help the carrots cook evenly, arrange them in the bag in a single layer and shoot for carrots that are roughly the same size.
2. White or brown sugar can be used
3. High quality olive oil can be substituted for butter
4. Make sure the bag is fully submerged in the water bath
5. To prevent floating, remove as much air from the bag as possible and add some weight to the bag, whether a utensil or sous vide weights or sous vide magnets.

Can You Bag the Carrots Ahead of Time?

Yes, you can bag sous vide carrots ahead of time. The carrots will store in the fridge for about a week; rather handy when meal prepping.

Sous Vide Glazed Carrots Recipe

There are many different types of carrot sous vide recipes using everything from maple syrup to brown sugar. This recipe is simple and will sous vide cook carrots as top chefs do, by enhancing their flavor using sweet ingredients.

With a quick finish in a pan, the sugar adds glaze to the carrots, making them look as great as they taste.

These carrots are a great complement to any meat.

Sous Vide Carrots Glazed Recipe

In this recipe we sous vide cook carrots like top chefs do. We play up the sweetness of carrots with a few simple kitchen staple ingredients.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 minutes mins

Inactive Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 7 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, Side Dish

Servings 6 people

Calories 83 kcal

Equipment

• Sous Vide Cooker
• Sous Vide Container or Pot
• Vacuum Sealer optional
• Vacuum Seal Bags or Ziplock Bags

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound Carrots (baby carrots or 6-8 peeled and cut carrots)
• 1 tablespoon (tbsp) Unsalted Butter
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
• dash Black Pepper
• small handful Parsley optional for garnish

Instructions

 

• Set the sous vide machine to 84°C / 183°F to start heating the sous vide water bath.
  
• Wash and peel the carrots or give them a really good scrub. Make sure you're carrots are roughly the same size. You can cut them into uniform sizes if you'd like.
  
• Place carrots and all the ingredients together inside a vacuum bag.
  
• Vacuum seal the top of the bag getting as much air. out of the bag as possible. Now they're ready to be cooked!
  
• Cook them at 84°C / 183°F for 1 hour.
  
• After 1 hour, take the sealed bag out of the container. Empty entire contents of bag onto a hot skillet.
  
• Saute in a pan your now tender carrots in its own juices with over medium-high heat for 2 minutes to create a shiny glaze. Stir constantly and add optional parsley.
  
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Enjoy immediately!
  

Notes

After cooking, these carrots will last 3 or 4 days in the fridge.

If you need your carrots don more quickly, try 194°F / 90°C for 15-25 minutes.

If you need to extend your cooking time, try 176°F / 80°C for 90-120 minutes.

Keyword Carrots, Sous Vide, Vegetables

FAQs

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