Sous Vide Butter Poached Carrots

Find out how to cook carrots via a sous vide machine. And of course you are cooking them in butter! Also hear how they cook using the sous vide function of the Instant Pot.

Carrots and a butter are a perfect combination. When you combine that with some sous vide technology, you take it to a different level.

Let us show you how it's done.

Jump to:

• 🛒 Ingredients
• ⏲️ How Long to Cook
• 📋 Instructions
• 💡 Top Tip
• ⏲️ Make Ahead
• 💨 Instant Pot Sous Vide
• 🥕 More Carrot Recipes
• 🍽️ More Sous Vide Recipes
• Sous Vide Butter Poached Carrots

🛒 Ingredients

• 3 pound carrots, I like organic rainbow carrots
• 1 stick or 8 tablespoons butter
• kosher salt to taste

Fresh herbs are a welcome addition as well. Here are some that work well with carrots

• Dill
• Curly Parsley
• Flat Leaf Parsley
• Tarragon

⏲️ How Long to Cook

Recommended cook time - 1 hour 30 minutes at 183 degrees

At first I tired them for 1 hour. But I wasn't happy with the results. I still felt they were not soft enough. I went another half hour and that much better. The carrots were soft without being mushy.

📋 Instructions

Slice the carrots into ½-3/4 inch thick slices. Since carrots taper at the end, it's hard to get them perfect. As I work my way down to the thinner end I make my slices longer. Do your best to get the carrots roughly the same size.

💡 Tip - You don't need to peel the carrots. I have found that if I didn't peel them it didn't other me at all, so why bother do it.

Seal the carrots in your preferred method along with the cubed cold butter. Ours is vacuum sealed with a Vesta vacuum sealer. We use these gallon size bags that we cut down to smaller sizes when needed. I love having large bags to start with because I can fit anything in them. It's easy to cut and seal both ends when I need to make smaller bags.

Set your water bath to 183 degrees for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Add the carrots once the water has come to temperature.

Even when vacuum sealed, it's hard to get all the air out. The carrots tend to float as seen in the above photo. You can use something to weight them down. I usually go with a small pot or a metal bowl. Just make sure your water level doesn't go above the max fill line on your immersion circulator.

Once the time is up, remove the bag of carrots with a pair of tongs. You can serve immediately but we have another idea.

💡 Top Tip

To really up the flavor of these carrots, once they are done cooking, pour the entire bag into a large skillet. Brown the carrots over medium high heat. The carrots get caramelized and even more delicious. You can add more butter if you think the carrots are too dry.

Cook them until they are brown around the edges.

⏲️ Make Ahead

Take that tip above and you can make these carrots a make ahead side dish. When the carrots are done in the sous vide bath, remove them. Allow them to cool, before placing them in the fridge for later use.

Then when it's time to eat them place them in the skillet as instructed above. You can make them a day or two before in the sous vide if you like, it would be best if you eat them when you go to reheat them.

💨 Instant Pot Sous Vide

I have been testing my sous vide recipes in my Instant Pot as well. I have the Duo Plus model that has a sous vide function. I wanted to try this recipe in it.

One downside is the Instant Pot isn't very fast with heating up the water. It took 30 minutes for the water to come up to temperature. Factor that in when you are planning how much time you will need.

Since the Instant Pot doesn't a minimum fill line for sous vide, I put the bag of carrots into the pot and cover with water. Then take the carrots out, and start heading the water up.

• Hit the sous vide button
• Set the temperature to 183 degrees
• Set the time to 1 hour 30 minutes
• Hit start

You can do it with or without the lid on. I put the lid on to keep the heat in.

The carrots were floating so I put a metal bowl over top of them to keep them submerged.

Did the Instant Pot work? Yes, although I would say that the carrots were more firm than with a traditional sous vide setup. Another 10-15 minutes might be good, but still enjoyed as is.

🥕 More Carrot Recipes

Here are some other carrot recipes on the blog.

• Quinoa with Wild Ramps & Diced Carrots
• Honey Tarragon Carrots
• Adding Carrots to Tomato Sauce
• Buttery Roasted Carrots

🍽️ More Sous Vide Recipes

More things to try out in your sous vide machine

• Perfectly Cooked Zucchini
• Burgers
• Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes
• Pumpkin Pie with Ginger Snap Crumble
• Chicken with Creamy Pepper Flake Sauce
• Sierra Steak
• 24 Hour Corned Beef