# Sous Vide for vegan/vegetarian



## El Pescador (May 2, 2016)

I have a buddy who reads the board occasionally who is trying to eat vegan/vegetarian. He just got a vacuum sealer and Anova. Sous Vide is new to him so any tips or vegan/vegetarian recipes would be much appreciated!


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## Mucho Bocho (May 3, 2016)

Pesky, vac produce microwaved is still my favorite way to prepaid them not the circulator. Cut veg bite size. Add dash of salt, dollop of butter and a splash of water. Seal high pressure. Microwave for three to four minutes. I use the zipper bags for this purpose so that it has a place to expand right before exploding.


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## DamageInc (May 3, 2016)

You can make mashed potatoes sous vide. Seal up some peeled spuds with butter and milk and sous vide until tender.


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## ThEoRy (May 3, 2016)

Most veggies take about 45 minutes at 185 degrees. I would stay away from sous vide green veg like asparagus, broccoli etc. They can turn brown if cooked long.


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## Mucho Bocho (May 3, 2016)

Curious to the benefit of a long cook time for veggies? 45 minutes? Rick, are you originally from the America South. LOL

When veggies are microwaved, they maintain their bright color, even the sulphur veggies don't come out poopy smelling. 

For me I like my veggies, bright colored with crisp but easily chewed texture. Even with just four or five minutes of microwave, you can get carrots soft enough to eat without dentures.


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## El Pescador (May 3, 2016)

Thanks guys! Anybody have anything for mushrooms?


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## WildBoar (May 3, 2016)

DamageInc said:


> You can make mashed potatoes sous vide. Seal up some peeled spuds with butter and milk and sous vide until tender.


And make sure you don't tell the vegan you put in butter and milk :biggrin:


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## DamageInc (May 3, 2016)

I ignored vegan and went for vegetarian, it being the lesser of two evils.


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## DDPslice (May 12, 2016)

maybe make a curry, toasting the herbs in a pan then throwing everything in a vac bag at *(im not sure what temperature) but im sure the paneer or tofu, rice and veggies or whatever you use will taste awesome because herbs come out very pungent doing it SV. Mainly doing the herb part SV and everything else in the pan or pressure cooker. 

Im not sure at all but good luck.


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## Smurfmacaw (May 12, 2016)

DamageInc said:


> I ignored vegan and went for vegetarian, it being the lesser of two evils.


Ovo-lacto-pesce vegetarians......sigh, vegans and vegetarians eat the stuff food needs.....


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## Mucho Bocho (May 12, 2016)

Smurfmacaw said:


> Ovo-lacto-pesce vegetarians......sigh, vegans and vegetarians eat the stuff food needs.....



Oh that was funny Mike. LOL


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## ThEoRy (May 12, 2016)

Mucho Bocho said:


> Curious to the benefit of a long cook time for veggies? 45 minutes? Rick, are you originally from the America South. LOL



185 is a very low temp for cooking veggies hence the longer cook time. In addition I like to vac the veg with aromatics like thyme, garlic and shallots with butter or EVOO. The cook time under vacuum ensures the infusion of the other flavors into the veg. They come out the perfect doneness. Not mush, not crispy. Just done perfectly.


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## MontezumaBoy (May 13, 2016)

DamageInc said:


> I ignored vegan and went for vegetarian, it being the lesser of two evils.



If these short quotes from some of your recent food thread exploits (along with beautiful photos BTW) are concerning your 'new' vegetarian lifestyle - then all I can say is I'm ALL IN! I must be a vegetarian 2! :angel2:

petit pois ala francaise
My first sous vide steak. 800g ribeye.
I'm doing some bolognese. Still got 3 more hours of simmering to go.
The butcher was fresh out of onglet, so dry aged ribeye had to suffice.

PETA here I come ... at least the Pretty Edible Tasty Animal group I read all about ....


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## akirapuff (May 13, 2016)

If you're using a chamber sealer, you can make quick pickles with alot of stuff. Or compressed melons.


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## MontezumaBoy (May 13, 2016)

+1 love this use for the vac


akirapuff said:


> If you're using a chamber sealer, you can make quick pickles with alot of stuff. Or compressed melons.


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## dough (May 13, 2016)

cauliflower steaks work pretty well using this technique to par cook the cauliflower then sear it on the grill


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## MontezumaBoy (May 13, 2016)

dough said:


> cauliflower steaks work pretty well using this technique to par cook the cauliflower then sear it on the grill



Bloody hell ... now you got me thinking about Danny (but that's a good thing) ... photo's seem to be MIA but it was an excellent thread at the time ...

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/21432-Cauliflower-quot-Steaks-quot


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## DamageInc (May 13, 2016)

MontezumaBoy said:


> If these short quotes from some of your recent food thread exploits (along with beautiful photos BTW) are concerning your 'new' vegetarian lifestyle - then all I can say is I'm ALL IN! I must be a vegetarian 2! :angel2:
> 
> petit pois ala francaise
> My first sous vide steak. 800g ribeye.
> ...



My post was not so much concerning my own diet, but the advice I gave for sous vide mashed potatoes, which called for butter and milk. So it's vegetarian, not vegan.

Still, thanks for the compliments.


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## dough (May 13, 2016)

MontezumaBoy said:


> Bloody hell ... now you got me thinking about Danny (but that's a good thing) ... photo's seem to be MIA but it was an excellent thread at the time ...
> 
> http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/21432-Cauliflower-quot-Steaks-quot



Awe man I can't believe I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me. I miss talking food with that guy he always made me excited to do new things just because they were possible. It is also really too bad his pictures are gone he always did such a nice job showing the process.


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## spoiledbroth (May 13, 2016)

If you play with the setting on the sealer you can make compressed watermelon etc. Creme brûlée if he's not vegan.


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## Elfen23 (May 13, 2016)

dough said:


> Awe man I can't believe I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me. I miss talking food with that guy he always made me excited to do new things just because they were possible. It is also really too bad his pictures are gone he always did such a nice job showing the process.



Unfortunately, his family disabled his Flickr account that held all of the pics he linked to his threads. 

Most of them are still on his cooking page... I'm unsure of the rules about linking to another site? But, the cauliflower project is there, as well as most of the other projects he put on the forum [emoji4]


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## Elfen23 (May 13, 2016)

And, you are correct!! Danny made anything and everything seem not only possible, but completely doable. One of the many things I love and miss about him.


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## Elfen23 (May 13, 2016)

spoiledbroth said:


> If you play with the setting on the sealer you can make compressed watermelon etc. Creme brûlée if he's not vegan.



+1!! Compressed watermelon with a splash of coconut rum is excellent on a hot summer day!


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (May 21, 2016)

Yes, seitan (cooked extremely gluten-rich/pure gluten dough, used in chinese and western vegetarian cuisine). The first thing with which I would try taking advantage of such equipment if it fell into my hands.


There is hardly a vegetarian preparation that could benefit as much from ANY device that allows precise temperature control, and constraining the ingredient: It will take ages to set/cook if the temperature is too low, often resulting in it being undercooked, giving you the infamous "rubber" texture. Get it a little to close to boiling if it has not set yet, especially if not constrained: the equally infamous "brains" texture because steam leavening will expand it far too much. It usually takes either long, very closely monitored simmering (get it boiling early on for even a minute - texture impaired) or *long* low oven baking in foil to actually get the stuff decent - most ready made/canned IS NOT, some asian canned varieties - the famous mock duck - are OK, instructions on gluten bags usually lead you down a spongy garden path if followed.


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## cosworth (Jul 16, 2016)

IMO only root vegetables like carrots/corn/etc are worth the effort/time using SV for. Greens benefit from blanching and dunking into ice (maintains a lively green and crunchiness); no point going through SV at all. You can make all kinds of mashes with potato/sweet potato/pumpkin etc. very easily and in small portioned sizes and frozen thereafter. Other than that, SV is (to me) great for a meat lover and a cool accessory for a vegan


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## Mucho Bocho (Jul 17, 2016)

cosworth said:


> IMO only root vegetables like carrots/corn/etc are worth the effort/time using SV for. Greens benefit from blanching and dunking into ice (maintains a lively green and crunchiness); no point going through SV at all. You can make all kinds of mashes with potato/sweet potato/pumpkin etc. very easily and in small portioned sizes and frozen thereafter. Other than that, SV is (to me) great for a meat lover and a cool accessory for a vegan



+1. Been saying this same thing years


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## DDPslice (Jul 20, 2016)

After an arduous 10 months of eating lots of plants I can say for sure. For vegetables 
PC > SV


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## WildBoar (Jul 20, 2016)

I keep reading this thread title and thinking "While I'm not necessarily a fan of vegetarians or vegans, I think wanting to cook them is a little extreme." :laugh:


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## daveb (Jul 20, 2016)

WildBoar said:


> I keep reading this thread title and thinking "While I'm not necessarily a fan of vegetarians or vegans, I think wanting to cook them is a little extreme." :laugh:



I'm a big fan of eating the four legged ones.


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## Lizzardborn (Aug 1, 2016)

daveb said:


> I'm a big fan of eating the four legged ones.



Vegans are eating the food of my food ...


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Aug 1, 2016)

I guess it is a reaction to us coming across a bit raw at times...


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## Keith Sinclair (Aug 10, 2016)

Life is too short to live without four legged pork.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Aug 10, 2016)

@Lizzardborn While I can't fault anyone liking that joke, keep in mind that it is factually disputable (efficient use of arable land that can be used for human vs animal food... but that is an argument I never came on this forum to have.).


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## ThEoRy (Nov 8, 2017)

LifeByA1000Cuts said:


> @Lizzardborn While I can't fault anyone liking that joke, keep in mind that it is factually disputable



Cows eat my corn man! That's why I eat cows. So I can eat corn vicariously.


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## StonedEdge (Nov 8, 2017)

WildBoar said:


> I keep reading this thread title and thinking "While I'm not necessarily a fan of vegetarians or vegans, I think wanting to cook them is a little extreme." [emoji23]


ROFL


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## cain47 (Nov 8, 2017)

dough said:


> cauliflower steaks work pretty well using this technique to par cook the cauliflower then sear it on the grill



Actually grilling the cauliflower steak first while it's raw works in my experience nicer. It holds the shape better and imparts the nice chargrilled flavour that gets enhanced with the SV. Also it helps to not have it flame up so much when it's covered with the cooking liquids once it's out of the bag.


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