Sous Vide Salmon with Lemon Miso Sauce

Let this be the first of many sous vide recipes.

Have you heard of this thing?? It makes you look like a pro chef! First off, I’m guessing most of you reading this don’t own a sous vide cooking appliance. Don’t worry. You’re normal.

I didn’t even know what it was until Santa brought it for Christmas last year!

Let’s make sure you know that you totally should still make this Lemon Miso sauce and put it over salmon — I mean, hello, it’s just lemon juice + miso paste + salt and pepper. It takes about zero-point-five seconds to stir together. SUPER complicated. I know. Say it with me now: “easy, healthy, flavorful weeknight dinner.”

No sous vide? No problem. Seriously consider it. But in the meantime, just roast or pan sear salmon instead. If you don’t know how, for roasting directions check out Garlic Mustard Roasted Salmon or for pan searing directions check out Intern Quinoa Salad with Pan Seared Salmon and Balsamic Greens (<– one of my personal favorites I’ve ever written).

To use the sous vide cooking method at home there are many appliances available. I use the Anova Precision Cooker (shown above). It just clips onto a large pot!

Ok so what the heck is sous vide? Sous vide means “sooooo fancy”! Just kidding. Sounds way fancier than it is. It means “under vacuum” in French. Sous vide is the term used to describe the method of cooking where you vacuum seal food in a bag and submerge it in a circulating water bath. (Don’t worry, if you don’t have a vacuum sealer there’s a hack to vacuum seal without one.) The device holds the water bath at a specific temperature which you set. Mine is an Anova Precision Cooker and I love it, it makes me look like a rock star. I don’t get paid/sponsored for this I just seriously love the thing.

So you want to cook a perfect medium-rare filet mignon at home? Get yourself on Hell’s Kitchen and have Gordon Ramsay yell at you ’til you figure out how to do it perfectly. No? Not your idea of a good time? Ok. Much easier solution… behind door number two…. get a sous vide/ precision cooker.

Lemme paint the picture a little clearer. The internal temp for med-rare steak is 130-135 F. Sooo, you set your precision cooker to 132.5 (I go right in the middle) and let it rip for a couple hours. Best part is, let’s say it takes exactly 2 hours to get the steak to that perfect temp, you can’t over cook it! The water bath won’t ever get hotter than what you set it to. So heck, say you’re hosting a dinner party or a holiday. You throw in 6 portions of filet (can I come over?!), and you let them hang out for 4 hours. Right before you serve, take ’em out, sear ’em off in a smoking hot pan, and done! They’ll stay held at that correct temp for as long as you leave ’em in there. Genius I tell you.

Now I’m starting to think I should have done a beef recipe first to debut this cooker on the blog. Oh well, too late! Sometime soon, promise. Seafood is intimidating to a non-cook. Overcooked and it’s blehhhh. Undercooked? Eww. Sous vide? Perfect every time.

If you don’t have a sous vide/ precision cooker I suggest you put it on your birthday list, Christmas list, wedding registry, whatever, because it truly is great. The maid of honor who planned the last bachelorette party I attended asked if I’d teach a cooking class (cute idea, right?!) for dinner, then we’d eat it. Well some uh-maaazing couple sent the bride and her fiancé an Anova Precision Cooker for a wedding gift! How convenient… so for the protein portion of the meal we cooked pork tenderloin which we marinated in my mustard + garlic+ soy sauce + EVOO mixture that doubles as topping after the meat is cooked. Pork tenderloin: probably not your go-to meat to impress guests because it’s a biatch to get right. Not with sous vide! Everyone at the table was so impressed at how moist, tender, and juicy the meat turned out. They said it was seriously like eating in a fancy restaurant! The bride was most pleased about the whole “timing factor” and how you can just let it sit ’til you’re ready to serve.

I like the sous vide over a meat thermometer because while the meat thermometer works to get a pork tenderloin roasted correctly, for example, I never have any idea how long it will take to cook. So I throw it in the oven and wait. And watch it. And wait. Nine times out of ten my sides were not done at the same time as the meat. They were either done waaaay early and overcooked or cold, or too late and dinner was delayed and the meat got cold while we waited on the sides. With the sous vide, you can look up how long something takes to cook and then plan accordingly. Or do it a little early, just to be sure, ya know??

So try this recipe, sous vide or no sous vide. Had you heard of it before??

Sous Vide Salmon with Lemon Miso Sauce

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

Sous-vide is French for "under vacuum". In this cooking method, you vacuum seal food and submerge it in a water bath at a sustained temperature. Perfect for cooking meat, eggs, and seafood to the right temp every time! If you don't have a sous vide, roast your salmon at 425 F for 10-12 minutes or until cooked. (Thicker filets may take a 'lil longer.)

Author: Alicia Shaw, RD

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Enough salmon for two people (~4-6 oz per person)
2 tablespoons white miso paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice (~1 lemon)
salt and pepper

Instructions

Sous vide your salmon at 118 F for 1 hour. (If frozen, 1.5 hours.)
Combine miso paste, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small mixing bowl.
When salmon is finished, remove from vacuum sealed bag and drain off any excess liquid. Plate, pour sauce over, and enjoy!

Want more ideas on ways to cook salmon? Try or pin for later (on Pinterest) one of my many salmon recipes. Did you know in the top left corner of every photo on L&L there’s a little “pin” button so you can easily save recipes to your Pinterest account?

Intern Quinoa Salad with Pan Seared Salmon and Balsamic Greens (gluten free, dairy free, vegan option)