Creamy Herb Sauce
Use this easy creamy herb sauce recipe to make any kind of herb-based sauce in 5-minutes! Make with simple ingredients using fresh or dried herbs of your choice– thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, oregano, mint, sage or tarragon…the options are endless!
Why you’ll love this recipe!
This creamy herb sauce pairs beautifully with grilled or roasted meats or poultry, as well as fish! If you’re lucky enough to have an herb garden, feel free to use finely chopped fresh herbs- or you can use dried herbs if you prefer.
- No guessing – exact proportions are already measured out for you
- Versatile – apply this recipe to make any type of herb cream sauce
- Reliable – works every time!
- Quick and easy – takes 5 minutes
- Works great with fresh or dried herbs!
Here’s what you’ll need
Simple pantry ingredients make this creamy herb sauce perfect for a weeknight dinner. You’ll need: butter, all-purpose flour, milk, dried or fresh herbs, acid (lemon/lime/vinegar/wine), salt and pepper. Use any of these herbs in this easy recipe: thyme, rosemary, parsley, dill, tarragon, basil or oregano.
How to make creamy herb sauce
This creamy herb sauce is basically a white sauce, or Bechamel sauce, with herbs of your choice. First, you’ll make a basic roux-based white sauce then add the herbs of your choice! How easy is that?
On low heat, melt butter in saucepan; sprinkle in flour; stir well; cook for 2-minutes; it should look like this: (this is called a “roux”)
Add room temperature milk in quarter-cup increments while whisking continually
Add dried herbs;remove from heat and stir in acid (lemon, vinegar, wine);salt to taste
Recipe Tips
- This recipe yields one cup of medium-thin sauce; to make more, keep the same proportions of the ingredients and double or triple the recipe
- For a thicker sauce, add more fat and flour, but don’t change the amount of milk
- Use unsalted or salted butter and all-purpose flour
- Use milk that has sat out of the fridge for about 5 minutes; doesn’t have to be room temperature, but you don’t want to add cold milk to the butter/flour mixture or the sauce won’t work
- After the milk is combined, remove the pan from the heat
- Add dried herbs
- Stir in acid (use lemon, vinegar or wine) last
- If you use fresh herbs, use 3X as much; dried herbs are stronger than fresh
- Season with ½ teaspoon of salt at first; add more if you like
- Serve immediately; sauce will thicken upon standing
- If you make it in advance, reheat on the stovetop on low heat and plan on adding a little more milk until it reaches the consistency you want
- If you’re adding this Herb Cream Sauce to pasta, add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water to the sauce; this will cause the sauce to stick to the pasta better!
Variations
The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of dried herbs. If you use fresh herbs, use three times as much. Keep the other ingredients in the same proportions and you’ll have the best Herb Cream Sauce ever!
- Dill Cream Sauce – add dill; perfect for fish, Greek gyros, lamb, beef
- Sage Cream Sauce – add sage; pair with roasted chicken, turkey or pork
- Tarragon Cream Sauce – add tarragon; serve with pork or eggs
Storage and reheating
If you have any leftover sauce, put it in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to reheat it, you can do this on low heat in a saucepan on the stovetop or microwave it. Note, the herb sauce thickens upon refrigeration, so you may need to add a little water to it.
Use your imagination and experiment with a variety of herbs! This creamy herb sauce offers a really fresh flavor your family will love!
Creamy Herb Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ stick butter salted or unsalted
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk 2% or whole
- 1 tablespoon dried herbs (see recipe notes)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (see recipe notes)
Instructions
- On low heat, melt butter in saucepan
- Once butter is melted, sprinkle in flour; whisk until combined
- Add milk in ¼ cup increments while constantly whisking; remove from heat
- Add the herb(s) of your choice
- Add lemon juice and stir well to combine
- Season with salt/pepper to taste
Notes
- This recipe yields one cup of medium-thin sauce; to make more, keep the same proportions of the ingredients and double or triple the recipe
- For a thicker herb cream sauce, add more fat and flour, but don’t change the amount of milk
- Use unsalted or salted butter and all-purpose flour
- Use milk that has sat out of the fridge for about 5 minutes; doesn’t have to be room temperature, but you don’t want to add cold milk to the butter/flour mixture or the sauce won’t work
- After the milk is combined, remove the pan from the heat
- Add herbs
- Stir in acid (use lemon, vinegar or wine) last and OFF HEAT
- If you use fresh herbs, use 3X as much; dried herbs are stronger than fresh
- Season with ½ teaspoon of salt at first; add more if you like
- Serve immediately; sauce will thicken upon standing
- If you make it in advance, reheat on the stovetop on low heat and plan on adding a little more milk until it reaches the consistency you want
Nutrition Estimate
Related recipes
- Basic White Sauce
- Mushroom Cream Sauce
- Lemon Butter Sauce
- Greek Cucumber-Dill Sauce (Tzatziki Sauce)
♥ If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and rating below! Thank you!
