Sous Vide Steak with Balsamic sauce is tender, perfectly cooked and flavourful. Go one step further and create a complete meal in one dish.

At the heart of this recipe is sous vide steak. Stress free sous vide steak I should say. Over the past 6 months, since I’ve been experimenting with sous vide cooking, I am like a broken record when I repeat that one of the biggest advantages of using the sous vide method is being able to plunge your meat into a water bath, walk away and come back to beautifully tender meat at the perfect temperature every single time. Need an extra hour? No problem. Want to make it ahead and just flash heat and brown it 2 minutes before serving? No problem. Pretty attractive. I especially like this method when I have guests. I recently had a dinner party for 8 and managed 8 steaks easily (see picture above).

To enhance flavour, I made a richly flavoured balsamic sauce. The steak and sauce is used here in two ways:

First option: steak is finished on the grill, cut in a couple of pieces, then drizzled with the balsamic sauce. Plain, simple and delicious. And great served with lemon-herb potato salad or crispy smashed potatoes with gremolata. Add a salad like beet, orange and goat cheese salad or tomato salad – done!
Second option: steak is thinly sliced and cut into bite sized pieces, then laid on a bed on greens, quinoa and roasted or grilled vegetables – and drizzled with the balsamic sauce. A complete meal with some crusty bread. Also delicious. This option is a great way to go if you want to stretch your expensive steak further.

So you choose. Obviously the second seems to take more effort, but you have to consider that you don’t need any sides except for perhaps some fresh bread.

After a lot of reading about sous vide, I suggest you choose steaks that are 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. I have used boneless ribeye and New York Striploin and they are both excellent. Regular sirloin would probably work well too (I think I would cook it an extra 30-60 minutes). Our sous vide machine is from Cedarlane Culinary so I use their temperature and time guidelines more or less. In this case, I reduced the recommended temperature for steak from 134F to 132-133F. The 134F does produce a medium rare steak, but I like to leave a little extra buffer for finishing it off on the grill or pan.

Shortcuts

use fresh instead of grilled/roasted vegetables for the salad.
use a good bottled balsamic dressing for the salad.
you can obviously just grill your steaks instead of using the sous vide method.

Variations

use any grilled or roasted vegetables you like for the salad (and any greens for that matter).
use rice instead of quinoa in the salad.
add a bit of water if your prefer your balsamic sauce less thick.

Scroll down after the recipe to see other sous vide recipes you might like to try.

Sous Vide Steak with Balsamic Sauce Two Ways Recipe

Created by Cheryl on May 28, 2017

Sous Vide Steak with Balsamic sauce is tender, perfectly cooked and flavourful. Go one step further and create a complete meal in one dish.

Prep Time: 15m
Cook Time: 2h
Total Time: 2h 15m

Yield: 4-6 servings
Category: main, make ahead

Ingredients

2 to 2.5 pounds New York Striploin steaks (1.5-2 inches thick). Boneless ribeye can be used instead.
salt, pepper, garlic powder
olive oil for drizzle

Balsamic Sauce

6 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon each, salt and pepper

Salad, Grilled Vegetables and Quinoa Option (if using)

1 cup quinoa (plus 1 3/4 cups water, 1/2 tsp salt)
2 Japanese eggplants, sliced into 1/2 inch discs
2 red or orange peppers, cored/seeded, sliced into 3-4 pieces each
1 large onion (red or white), sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
4-5 cups lettuce or fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
chopped parsley (garnish)

Instructions

HEAT THE WATER IN SOUS VIDE MACHINE: Fill the sous vide machine about 3/4 full with water. Set the temperature to 132-133F for medium rare (or according to your machine guidelines). The water will take about 15 minutes to reach the correct temperature (or less if you start with warm water).
SEASON THE MEAT: Sprinkle the steaks with generously with salt and pepper (and lightly with garlic powder if desired) on both sides.
PREPARE MEAT FOR SOUS VIDE: Fold over a flap on 1-2 vacuum seal bags (use maximum 2 steaks per bag). Place two New York Striploin steaks inside each bag and unfold the flap. Plug in the vacuum sealer machine. Seal the bag (and vacuum out the air) as per machine instructions.
SOUS VIDE THE MEAT: Plunge the vacuum-sealed bag (s) into the pre-heated water bath. They will sink to the bottom. Cover the machine. Walk away. If steaks are 1 inch thick, cook for 1-3 hours. If 1.5 inches thick, cook for 2-3 hours. If 2 inches thick, cook for 3-5 hours.
MAKE THE BALSAMIC SAUCE: Place all balsamic sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and stir to combine. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. If desired, stir in a tablespoon of cold butter if desired.
PREPARE SALAD (IF MAKING THIS OPTION): Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt/pepper peppers, eggplant, onions, asparagus (or any veggies of your choice). Grill for 3-4 minutes per side or roast at 400F for 20-25 minutes until tender. Cook quinoa: Bring to boil rinsed quinoa, water and salt. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes. Mix greens and quinoa and place on large shallow bowl or platter. Add grilled vegetables on top. Set aside.
GRILL OR PANFRY STEAKS: Heat grill to High. Remove the meat from the sealed bag(s). Discard juices. Pat the meat dry with paper towels. Rub oil over the meat and sprinkle again with kosher salt and pepper. Sear the beef about 1- 1 1/2 minute on each side to achieve nice grill marks. Alternatively, sear in a very hot pan on the stove. No need to rest the steaks. STEAK WITH BALSAMIC SAUCE: Cut steaks into 3 pieces and drizzle on balsamic sauce. Serve and pass extra sauce. STEAK SALAD OPTION: Drizzle a little of the sauce on the salad. Slice the steaks thinly across the grain, cut into bite-size pieces and pile onto the salad/vegetables/quinoa. Drizzle more sauce on top. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve warm or at room temperature.