Able to precisely cook foods submerged in a water bath over time, the sous vide is a beloved tool for many home cooks. However, navigating the device itself, not to mention all those vacuum-sealed pouches, can be tricky.
Here’s a collection of apps to help you make the most of your sous vide and cook up delicious, healthy meals.
What Is a Sous Vide?
To cook sous vide, you first vacuum-seal food (typically in a plastic bag), then cook it in a water bath held at a very precise temperature. While the cooking technique was once only common to professional chefs, a recent proliferation of smart sous vide machines for home cooks has made it more accessible for everybody. With one of the home machines, and a reliable vacuum sealer, anyone can create these dishes.
What’s the point of cooking sous vide? By controlling the temperature so precisely, you can ensure your food gets cooked well in its entirety. This is good news for anyone who’s had the unfortunate experience of cutting into a piece of chicken that was still a bit raw in the middle. On the other side, it’s harder to overcook foods in the sous vide, so you won’t have to wrestle with an overcooked steak again.
Although it’s ideal for cooking steaks, pork, chicken, and just about any other meat, the sous vide is also an excellent resource for cooking vegetables and grains as well. The precise cooking temperature helps make perfectly crisp asparagus or flavorful carrots. Whatever your preferences, you’re sure to find many creative and delicious dishes to cook up in this appliance.
1. Anova Culinary
This free app offers a large recipe collection, as well as step-by-step instructions for making the meals in your sous vide. You can pair it with an Anova cooker to cook meals right from your phone, or simply browse the recipe selection for use in any sous vide.
Browse the Home screen for mouth-watering recipe recommendations. An impressive number of dishes can get cooked in the sous vide, including egg bites, glazed carrots, and short ribs.
The Guides, meanwhile, offer step-by-step instructions for cooking beef, poultry, eggs, seafood, lamb, pork, and vegetables. Whether you want to make a perfect porterhouse steak or a turkey breast, the guides break down every step.
Download: Anova Culinary for iOS | Android (Free)
2. Food Network Kitchen
This beloved and robust app also includes a selection of sous vide recipes, including steak and pork sandwiches. Enter sous vide in the Search tab to pull up the recipe selection.
The sous vide steak dinner recipe walks you through the process of making this dish (along with some spinach and cream cheese as a perfect side).
Meanwhile, the chicken sous vide vallee d’Auge is an impressive recipe that comes together in about an hour. With chicken breasts, apples, shallots, and mushrooms, it’s a healthy and flavorful meal as well.
For many cooks, the beginner-friendly sous vide recipes on the Food Network Kitchen app are great ways to test out your device.
Download: Food Network Kitchen for iOS | Android (Free)
3. Yummly
Make homemade egg bites, salmon, and char siu in the sous vide with recipes from this app. Browse the massive list of nearly 1,000 sous vide recipes (and mouth-watering photographs) to find all the cooking inspiration you need.
Yummly pulls dishes from blogs and cooking sites. When you tap the Get Directions button in a recipe, it might bring you to Salt Pepper Skillet, Platings and Pairings, or many other blogs. This also makes it a simple way to find new chefs and other culinary creators to follow.
Thanks to the sheer volume of recipes on this app, you’re sure to find dozens of options for your own sous vide cooking adventures. Why not make a carrot ginger soup, or a poached egg?
A free account lets you access many of the recipes, while a paid subscription offers personalized recommendations, instructional videos, and more content.
Download: Yummly for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
4. SideChef
Cauliflower curry and sous vide panna cotta are just a few of the recipes included in the popular SideChef app. If you’re already a fan of the SideChef app’s healthy recipes and meal planning options, then you’ll want to check out their creative approach to the sous vide technique as well.
Some recipes use an air sous vide technique, which offers similar precision cooking without water. It’s an option in some newer cooking appliances. Others, like the sous vide whole chicken, call for the traditional method. If you have access to both cooking methods, experiment to find which one works best for you.
Recipes include clear photo or video instructions, so you know what to do every step of the way. You can view some recipes with a free version of the app, while a subscription unlocks all of them.
Download: SideChef for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)
5. Joule: Sous Vide by ChefSteps
With instructive videos, detailed cooking guides, and plenty of recipe recommendations, the Joule app is a fantastic resource. Simple scrolling the recipe selection is enough to make you bust out your sous vide for dinner (or any other meal).
Although the app is designed to pair with Joule brand products, you can use the recipe guides and temperature recommendations for any device.
To start, you can search by food types on the Home screen. Get instructions for cooking beef, lamb, game, vegetables, and more under each section. (The game section includes a recipe for squirrel confit, so it’s safe to say this app has a little bit of everything.)
Get comprehensive instructions for making eggs Benedict, beluga lentils, and even baby bok choy in the sous vide method. It’s easy to get inspired by the vibrant photographs and straightforward, simple instructions for making each dish.
Download: Joule for iOS | Android (Free)
Create Amazing Sous Vide Recipes Today
Whether you’re in the mood for salmon, steak, or a delicious dessert, apps for sous vide recipes will help put your device to good use. You’ll have a wealth of ideas for your next meal in no time.