Sous Vide Glazed Baby Carrots
In this recipe, you’ll learn how easy it is to Sous Vide Carrots. They’re budget friendly, made with simple ingredients and can be customized many different ways including baby food, soups or to just eat as a delicious side dish. A great sous vide beginner recipe!
When I first purchased my Anova Culinary Sous Vide, for the first year I only cooked proteins like chicken breast pot roast and corned beef. These days I’ve started to experiment with sous vide vegetables and it has paid off!
💭What is Sous Vide Cooking?
Sous vide is a method of cooking for a longer period of time in a temperature controlled water bath. For example, a ribeye steak is marinated and placed in a vacuum sealed bag or Ziploc and is submerged to be fully cooked at a temperature that is to your liking.
Once it is fully cooked, it just needs to be seared off in a hot cast iron pan while still remaining at the perfect temperature.
🤔Why Sous Vide Carrots?
Although carrots are an easy vegetable to cook, you can overcook them or undercook them depending on how much time and what method you use. When you sous vide a carrot, it is cooked to a perfect temperature that is not mushy but stays tender with a slight bite to it.
When you sous vide a vegetable, it is gently cooked in it’s own juices that cannot escape making everything have more flavor and tenderness.
Another benefit to sous vide carrots is that you can also make large batches ahead of time and keep them in the fridge or freezer for later use. This is great if you want to make a carrot puree or mash to use as easy homemade baby food.
In this recipe, I used baby carrots because they save me time with peeling and chopping. I also knew that my toddler would love them! Feel free to use peeled and chopped full sized carrots.
🥕Ingredients You’ll Need
Baby Carrots – These can be found in any grocery store and are often less than one dollar per pound. I like that I don’t have to peel or chop them which makes it a great kid friendly food option.
Sea Salt & Black Pepper – This classic duo brings out the sweetness of the carrots.
Butter – Butter is used at the end for the glaze and gives the carrots a beautiful buttery taste.
Brown Sugar – Brown sugar is a great addition to sous vide carrots as it compliments the natural sweetness and helps brown up the carrots in the last step.
📖How To Sous Vide Carrots
How long to sous vide carrots was something I personally tested a few times. I found that the right time and temperature for baby carrots was 185 degrees for one hour. This may vary with the texture you desire, but this time and temperature is a great starting point.
1️⃣ Add water to a large pot or sous vide cooking container and fasten your sous vide to the side. Set the temperature to 185 F and wait until it comes to temperature.
2️⃣ As the water is heating up, add your baby carrots to a bowl and toss with salt and pepper until evenly coated. Then vacuum seal them in a single layer in a vacuum sealed bag. Don’t have a vacuum sealer? See notes below.
3️⃣ Submerge the carrots into the water bath. You may need to put a heavy object on top to keep them from floating up. Cook for one hour in the water bath.
4️⃣ Remove from the water bath and heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add butter and sugar and heat until bubbly. Open the bag of carrots and add to the skillet. You can cook them with the juices in the bag or discard the juices for a more browned carrot.
5️⃣ Turn the heat to high and sauté sous vide carrots brown sugar in the butter and sugar mixture until carrots begin to caramelize at desired level. Remove from heat and serve hot.
📝NOTE: If you are using your carrots for another purpose, you do not have to sauté them in butter and sugar.
👝Don’t Have A Vacuum Sealer?
If you use the sous vide to cook often, it may be worth purchasing a vacuum sealer down the line. However, when you’re first starting, you can use ziploc bags to place your food in before cooking. Just make sure they are Freezer Bags and that you take as much air out of the bag as possible.
This can be done by the water displacement method which is dunking the bag with food in the water bath leaving a slight 1 inch opened on one side, once the pressure from the water takes out all the air, seal the bag up fully.
👩🏻🍳Chef’s Sous Vide Cooking Tips
If you’re using the baby carrots sous vide later, place them in an ice bath for 5 minutes after they come out of the sous vide in order to keep them at a safe cooking temperature.
To prevent evaporation, cover your pot with a piece of tin foil and seal around the edges to keep the heat in.
Another way to keep the heat in is to wrap your pot with a towel while it is cooking.
One of the reasons I really enjoy my sous vide is that it is connected to Wifi. The app will alert me when the water reaches temperature or if the water evaporated too much during overnight cooking. It’s worth the price!
🍽How To Serve Sous Vide Carrots
- Use honey or maple syrup instead of brown sugar.
- Add ginger to the bag for a spicy ginger carrot.
- Season with your favorite spices such as curry powder, harissa, Italian seasoning or Cajun seasoning.
- Add orange or lemon zest to the bag before cooking for a flavorful citrus carrot.
- Use plain sous vide carrots in a carrot cake.
- Mash or puree them for easy baby food.
- Use balsamic vinegar to glaze instead of sweetener.
- Sous vide with other veggies such as beets, carrots, parsnips and potatoes.
- Blend up cooked ginger and coconut milk for a carrot ginger soup.
❔FAQ
If your temperature goes above 185 and you cook them for longer than an hour or two, there is a chance that they could be overcooked or mushy. Make sure you set a timer!
Yes you can! But cooking them sous vide allows a gentle way of cooking that allows the carrot to retain more flavor and nutrition as the steam can deplete some of this.
Absolutely! Make sure they are fully cooled before adding them to the freezer right in their sealed bag. Keep them frozen for up to 4 months.
More Easy Sous Vide Recipes
- Crispy Sous Vide Chicken Thighs
- Sous Vide Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Sous Vide Pulled Pork
- Sous Vide Chicken Breast
- Sous Vide Corned Beef
- Sous Vide Pot Roast
- Sous Vide Sweet Potatoes
Sous Vide Glazed Baby Carrots
Ingredients
- 1 lb Baby Carrots
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
For Optional Glazing
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Brown Sugar
Instructions
- How long to sous vide carrots was something I personally tested a few times. I found that the right time and temperature for baby carrots was 185 degrees for one hour. This may vary with the texture you desire, but this time and temperature is a great starting point.
- Add water to a large pot or sous vide cooking container and fasten your sous vide to the side. Set the temperature to 185 F and wait until it comes to temperature.
- As the water is heating up, add your baby carrots to a bowl and toss with salt and pepper until evenly coated. Then vacuum seal them in a single layer in a vacuum sealed bag. Don’t have a vacuum sealer? See notes below.
- Submerge the carrots into the water bath. You may need to put a heavy object on top to keep them from floating up. Cook for one hour in the water bath.
- Remove from the water bath and heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add butter and sugar and heat until bubbly. Open the bag of carrots and add to the skillet. You can cook them with the juices in the bag or discard the juices for a more browned carrot.
- Turn the heat to high and sauté carrots in the butter and sugar mixture until carrots begin to caramelize at desired level.
- Remove from heat and serve hot.
- OPTIONAL: If you are using your carrots for another purpose, you do not have to sauté them in butter and sugar to glaze them.
