Parsley sauce recipe

Parsley sauce is easy to make and the perfect accompaniment to fish dishes.

Creamy, herby and hearty, parsley sauce is a British classic that’s earned its place on our plates. Delicious with white fish, chicken and potato, it’s essentially a bechamel sauce with chopped flat leaf parsley. We’ve made ours with full-fat milk for a rich indulgent flavour. But you could always swap this for semi-skimmed milk if you’re conscious of the calories.

Ingredients

• 425ml full fat milk
• Bunch of flat leaf parsley finely chopped (but keep the stalks)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 onion, thickly sliced
• 5 peppercorns
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 20g plain flour
• 40g butter
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to season

Method

1. Put the milk, parsley stalks, bay leaf, onion, peppercorns and nutmeg in a heavy-bottomed pan.
2. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then remove from the heat and allow to go cold. This will help to infuse the milk before making the sauce.
3. Slowly melt the butter in another saucepan. Add the flour and stir continuously for a minute so that you cook out the raw flour flavour. Remove from the heat.
4. Strain the milk through a sieve to remove the infusing ingredients and slowly add the milk to the butter and flour mixture. Keep combining a little more milk every few seconds until you've added it all. You should now have a thin, lump-free sauce.
5. Return the pan to the heat and stir the sauce until it starts to thicken. This will take about 5 minutes.
6. Once it's thick, remove from the heat. Add the chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
7. Serve your parsley sauce with salty roast gammon and new potatoes, crispy fishcakes or grilled white fish.

Top tip for making parsley sauce:

Taking the butter & flour mix off the heat and adding just a dash of milk to start off with will stop the sauce going lumpy.

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• Bechamel sauce
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• White sauce
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