Easy 10 Minute Sous Vide Asparagus

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Asparagus is one of the most versatile vegetables. With this sous vide asparagus recipe, you can have a restaurant-quality dish in minutes!

I will bust out the sous vide machine any day of the week when I want to cook something easy and tasty. Sous vide chicken breast in just about any way, sous vide filet mignon sliced and served with peppery greens, perfectly poached salmon, the list goes on forever.

And all of those things go perfectly with sous vide asparagus, which happens to be our favorite veg. It's deliciously seasoned with lemon zest, a little garlic, some butter; it's also a great side dish for just about anything from great sous vide steak to simple lemon pepper chicken breasts.

I find that the sous vide method is one of the easiest ways to cook it. No worry about soggy, mushy, overcooked asparagus here! You'll have tender-crisp, well seasoned, bright green asparagus for two in just ten minutes.

Is it Worth it to Sous Vide Vegetables?

To sous vide or not to sous vide, that is the question. In this recipe, the asparagus are gently cooked to perfection in your preheated water bath, for a flavorful sous vide experience.

Cooking vegetables sous vide style is the best way to not mess things up when your wife asks for help making dinner. It's literally foolproof because the precise temperature is already set with the sous vide machine, all you have to do is time it right. But that's the rule for everything you sous vide.

The vegetables stay perfectly cooked and bright, there's no chance of it continuing to cook once out of the bag like when you cook at high temperatures on the stove or in the oven.

Equipment Needed to Sous Vide

A sous vide immersion circulator or sous vide water bath machine. Yep, a sous vide cooker is necessary for this sous vide asparagus recipe. The immersion circulators range in price, I have a whole post on my favorite sous vide equipment and my top picks for sous vide cookers of different price ranges, but the one I use most frequently is my Anova Precision Sous Vide Cooker with Wifi.

A large container. Before we bought the kit with a large sous vide water bath container, we would use large stock pots and even the Instant Pot's inner metal pot in a pinch. Whatever large, food-safe, water-tight container you have, use it.

Sous Vide-Safe Bags. It's so important to use bags that can be used in heat. Some plastic zip-top bags can be used in the sous vide, but you do have to think about how it degrades in the hot water bath. To be safe and have a successful sous vide cooking experience, use sous vide-safe bags.

Vacuum Sealer. Of course you can get away with using that sous vide safe zip top bag and carefully use the water displacement method to remove all the air, but a vacuum sealer is less fussy and gives safe, consistent results. A vacuum sealer can be really affordable; I also talk about my favorite vacuum sealers in the Best Sous Vide Equipment for All Price Ranges post, so check it out!

How to Choose the Best Asparagus

When choosing fresh asparagus, look for a bunch where the tips are tightly closed and the stalks have a fresh vibrant green color.

Choose an asparagus bunch that is uniform in size to ensure even cooking, isn't wrinkling up, and the bottom of the asparagus isn't dried out. Look for a firm stalk; if you try to break the woody ends off they'll break easily with a fresh, crisp snap.

Asparagus that is properly stored will be standing up in an ice water bath at the grocery store.

How to Sous Vide Asparagus

First, preheat your immersion circulator. Then wash the fresh asparagus thoroughly under cold running water with the tips pointing down to get any sand or dirt to fall into the sink.

Next, snap the woody ends off the asparagus. You can also cut the ends off where the green begins to turn white, that's around the part where the ends turn tough and inedible.

Now place the trimmed stalks in a single layer in a sous vide bag. Don't overcrowd, you can always use another vacuum seal bag for them.

Add the salted butter, black pepper, garlic powder, and lemon zest and juice. Add the salt after cooking; I find that you end up with a more green veggie if you add the salt after cooking. That's why we're using salted butter rather than unsalted butter, to help infuse some of that saltiness while keeping the asparagus bright in color.

Vacuum seal the bag. I didn't need to weigh it down, but if you are afraid of the bag floating rather than being completely immersed, add a couple of spoons to the bag to help it sink. If you don't have a vacuum sealer or a vacuum bag, you can put the asparagus in a zip-top plastic bag and use the water displacement method where the pressure of the water pushes the air bubbles out of the plastic bag.

Now it's time to cook. Place the bag of asparagus into the sous vide water bath and let it cook for the time needed. It's very important to pay attention to the timing for the different thicknesses in asparagus spears. The thicker stalks need more time while the thin stalks may need half the cooking time for beautifully crisp asparagus.

Asparagus Stalk Thickness	Time in Sous Vide Bath
Thin (diameter of a pencil or less)	6 to 7 minutes
Medium Thickness	8 to 10 minutes
Very Thick Stalks	12 minutes

Once the asparagus is done butter poaching in the sous vide cooker, remove them from the bag and place them on a serving plate. Season with a bit of kosher salt or smoked flaky sea salt if you want to serve a fancy dinner.

Add wedges of lemon and shaved parmesan cheese and serve. A really quick and simple recipe, right?

Ingredients

Fresh Asparagus Stalks. Look above in the 'How to Choose the Best Asparagus' section for my best tips on choosing the best asparagus to use.

Lemon Zest and Juice. The flavor isn't as punchy without the lemon juice, in my opinion.

Garlic Powder. When cooking with the sous vide method, fresh garlic doesn't gain that delicious flavor we like when it's roasted or sautéed.

It keeps that sharp raw garlic flavor in the sous vide, in fact it intensifies because this process makes the flavors in your food more intense. Garlic powder is the way to go.

Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper. We are adding the salt after cooking to keep that vibrant green color.

Salted Butter. The salted butter gives the asparagus a chance to absorb the salted buttery flavor without wilting and discoloring.

Recipes to Use Asparagus in

Sous vide asparagus is a great side dish for just about anything you make. Asparagus pairs well with a juicy steak or seared salmon on the dinner plate, that's for sure.

We also like to incorporate the asparagus into recipes that my wife may already be making. Lemon parm risotto or a spinach salad with a little goat cheese, it's really good.

FAQ

More Side Dishes

• Sous Vide Mashed Potatoes
• Small Batch Cilantro Lime Rice
• Sous Vide Butter Poached Corn
• Sous Vide Caramelized Onions

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