Sous Vide Beyond Burger: Is It Possible?

Are you a vegan or vegetarian and are looking for the best meatless burger ever? Of the veggie burgers, like Beyond Burgers, you’ve tried making, have you always thought the only way to cook them is on a grill or in a pan?

Thinking beyond grilling, if you’ve ever wondered if a sous vide Beyond Burger is a possibility, I’ll tell you now that it certainly is. I’m going to show you that you can sous vide these meatless burger wonders, and doing so will seriously up your veggie burger game. Keep reading for my recipe below.

What Is a Beyond Burger?

A Beyond Burger is a plant-based burger patty made by the company, Beyond Meat. Popular among vegetarians and vegans, Beyond Burgers are meant to look and taste like a beef burger but have no meat in them at all.

They’re mostly made of pea protein (20 grams to be exact), and contain no soy or gluten.

While the manufacturer’s instructions recommend cooking Beyond Burgers on a grill or pan (for about 4 minutes per side), you can also cook them sous vide!

Why Sous Vide a Beyond Burger?

Beyond Burgers grilled the usual way taste really juicy, caramelized, and great. But sous vide cooking a Beyond Burger, and then finishing it off with a quick sear on a grill or pan, just takes everything to the next level.

Many have had great success cooking Beyond Burgers sous vide. It makes them taste so much more tender and juicy compared to cooking it on a grill or pan.

There was even a blind taste test done, comparing a Beyond Burger, a premium beef burger, and a Wagyu beef burger all cooked sous vide and then seared on a grill. Believe it or not, the taste testers couldn’t tell that the Beyond Burger wasn’t actually made of beef! Check out the video of this taste test below.

How to Make a Sous Vide Beyond Burger

Follow the steps below for how to sous vide the most tender and juicy meatless burger you’ve ever tried! Feel free to leave out any seasoning or toppings from these steps if you don’t like them.

1. Season the patties with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
2. Bag the patties and sous vide them at 150°F (65.6°C) for 2 hours. People have also tried 140°F (60°C) for 1 hour with good results. Try both, and see what works best for you.
3. Heat up a pan to medium to low heat, add some oil, and fry some diced onions.
4. Let the onions caramelize for about 15 minutes.
5. When the onions are done, set them aside. Then toast the buns. You can do this directly in the pan you used to fry the onions (this will add great flavor) or in a toaster.
6. When the burgers are done, heat up the same pan to high heat. Add some oil and sear the sous vide Beyond Burgers for about 1 minute on one side.
7. Once the first side is seared and caramelized, flip the patties. Add cheese on top of the now seared side (this will melt nicely while the other side gets seared). Let the other side also sear for about 1 minute.
8. Assemble the burgers using the seared patties with cheese, toasted buns, caramelized onions, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, pickles, lettuce etc. Whatever you like in your burgers!
9. Enjoy the best sous vide veggie burger (or veggie burger in general) you’ve ever tasted.

Can You Sous Vide Frozen Beyond Burgers?

One of the really awesome things about the sous vide method of cooking is that you can cook foods from frozen, including pretty much any type of meat and veggie burgers, like Beyond Burgers.

So if you ever get a sudden craving for a juicy, delicious Beyond Burger, you can easily grab one from your freezer and pop it into a sous vide water bath to enjoy.

Here are some tips on how to go about preparing a sous vide frozen Beyond Burger:

• If you have the time, let it thaw first. This will reduce the cooking time and will allow you to follow standard recipes for determining the right temperature and cooking time.
• The general rule of thumb is, if the standard/fresh cooking time is less than 2 hours, you should add 50% to the standard cooking time to sous vide most frozen foods. So, if you prefer to sous vide your fresh Beyond Burgers for 2 hours, then you should sous vide frozen Beyond Burgers for 3 hours. And if your preferred fresh cooking time is 1 hour, then you should sous vide your frozen Beyond Burger for 1.5 hours.

What About Sous Vide Impossible Burger?

Impossible Burgers are pretty similar to Beyond Burgers. These vegan, plant-based burgers have 19 grams of protein in one patty (a 4 ounce serving), coming close to Beyond Burgers’ 20 grams of protein per serving.

Interestingly, this is roughly the same amount of protein as 80/20 ground beef. Both also boast 0 grams of cholesterol.

So can you sous vide an impossible burger, too? Absolutely. Just follow the same steps I outlined above for sous vide Beyond Burgers.

What About Sous Vide Beyond Sausage?

Beyond Sausage is, you guessed it, Beyond Meat’s plant-based sausage. These veggie sausages are also super popular and come in other varieties, like Hot Italian and Breakfast Sausage.

There really isn’t any guidance out there on sous vide cooking Beyond Sausage. You can definitely sous vide regular meat sausages, so I don’t see why you can’t experiment with Beyond Sausage.

Beyond Meat recommends cooking Beyond Sausage in a grill or skillet for about 6 minutes, which is 2 minutes more than their grilling recommendation for the Beyond Burger.

So if you were to sous vide these, I would take the cooking time you use for Beyond Burgers (1-2 hours) and add a bit more time to that. This is definitely the time to experiment. Just make sure that the internal temperature is 165°F (74°C).

In Summary

Sous vide veggie burgers are definitely a possibility, and a sous vide Beyond Burger is a great example of that. And, from the above video, you don’t even have to be a vegan or vegetarian to love them.

I highly recommend you stop grilling your Beyond Burgers in a grill pan and go grab your sous vide machine (or get yourself one) to make the most delicious meatless burger you’ve ever had! I’m encouraging vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters alike.

Interested in other lesser known uses and food you can make with your sous vide immersion circulator? Click here to learn more!