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
WEIGHT CONVERTER
Method
- Put the milk, parsley stalks, bay leaf, onion, peppercorns and nutmeg in a heavy-bottomed pan.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Return the pan to the heat and stir the sauce until it starts to thicken. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Once it's thick, remove from the heat. Add the chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
- 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.
You might also like...
- Bechamel sauce (opens in new tab)
- White sauce (opens in new tab)
- All of our homemade sauce recipes (opens in new tab)
Jessica Dady is Senior Content Editor at Goodto.com and has over 10 years of experience as a digital journalist, specialising in all things food, recipes, and SEO. From the best food hampers to cookbooks, from the best cake stands to baking sets, Jessica has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to must-have food products. A passionate baker, she spends much of her time creating celebration cakes for friends and family - particularly for her two lucky children.
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