Parsley Sauce Recipe - Creamy British Parsley Sauce | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

What is parsley sauce made of? ›

Parsley sauce is a quick and simple sauce that can be extremely delicious. This parsley sauce recipe is made of fresh parsley, butter, English mustard, milk, and flour. It's a great way to give a basic white sauce a gentle flavor and use an abundance of parsley.

The secrets are to make sure you get the lumps out of the initial butter and flour mix, cook it for a couple of minutes and use a balloon whisk to incorporate the milk thoroughly into the butter and flour. If you make sure you have no lumps at each stage, then you will have a perfect sauce.

Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Once cool, will keep chilled for up to three days or frozen for a month. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat over a low heat.

Cook the Flour Longer: If your sauce tastes like raw flour, it's possible that the flour hasn't been cooked long enough. Try cooking the sauce over low to medium heat for a few minutes longer, stirring constantly, to allow the flour to cook and the raw taste to dissipate.

Parsley is a source of flavonoids and antioxidants, especially luteolin, apigenin, folate, vitamin K, vitamin C, and vitamin A. Half a tablespoon (a gram) of dried parsley contains about 6.0 µg of lycopene and 10.7 µg of alpha carotene as well as 82.9 µg of lutein+zeaxanthin and 80.7 µg of beta carotene.

In some people, parsley can cause allergic skin reactions. But consuming very large amounts of parsley is LIKELY UNSAFE, and can cause other side effects like anemia and liver or kidney problems.

To make the parsley sauce, melt the butter until foaming, whisk in the flour and gradually add the milk. Season and then stir in the parsley and mustard at the last minute. Serve with buttered new potatoes and the parsley sauce.

How to tell if parsley is bad. You can tell if parsley has gone bad by color and smell. The leaves should not droop and should be a deep or bright green without any brown or yellow spots, as these are an indication that the parsley has gone bad. An off smell is also an indicator that your parsley has gone off.

1. Put chopped parsley on everything: Don't chop it too finely — bigger pieces are prettier and have more flavor. Throw it with abandon on top of grilled vegetables, roasted potatoes, a cold green-bean salad, stews, soups, pasta, hot or cold grain dishes like couscous or quinoa or tabbouleh or … 2.

Another great way to preserve parsley (or tender herb) is to freeze it in oil. The frozen cubes of parsley oil can then be used to flavor roasted vegetables, used to make a quick finishing sauce or salad dressing. In a food processor, pulse the cleaned dry parsley until it's roughly chopped up.

Is it best to freeze parsley whole or chopped? ›

Once the parsley leaves are as dry as possible, you can either freeze them whole, chop or mince them down to your desired size.

This is commonly called "liquor sauce" or simply "liquor" (liquor as in a liquid in which something has been steeped or cooked), traditionally made using the water kept from the preparation of the stewed eels. However, many shops no longer use stewed eel water in their parsley liquor.

Treat it like any other leafy green and use it as a salad base — or mix it in with other lettuces to add a punch of flavor. You can also blitz it into a sauce, like chimichurri or pesto, stir it into a grain or bean salad, or throw it into a frittata.

Which kind of parsley has more flavor? Italian (flat-leaf) parsley is known for its more robust flavor and is the better option for cooking. Curly parsley has a fainter flavor and does better as a fresh garnish.

Flavour profile

Parsley has a clean and peppery taste with a touch of earthiness, making it a great all-rounder in the kitchen. Running through each leaf is a natural aromatic oil, and it's this which is responsible for its unmistakable flavour.

As others have said, what you have probably seen is not parsley sauce, but the liquor from stewed eels, that might have parsley in it. Parsley Sauce is a thick white sauce (basically a bechamel sauce) with loads of chopped parsley in it and is usually served with steamed or boiled white fish, like cod or pollock.

Flavor: Cilantro is tangy whereas parsley is bright and grassy and can have slightly bitter or peppery notes. Uses: Cilantro is more delicate than parsley and doesn't stand up to heat as well. Parsley can hold up to being pureed, roasted and chopped, and the stems can be added to slow-simmering stocks and soups.