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Gluten-Free Parsley Sauce is a lovely simple creamy sauce to accompany your favourite fish supper, baked ham, gammon, pork chops or even as the base for a fish pie. Made with cornflour so you don’t need to make a roux, plenty of fresh parsley and a dash of double cream.
Jump to:
- Does parsley sauce contain gluten?
- Why you’ll love this recipe
- Watch the video to see how to make it
- What is parsley sauce made of?
- Gluten-free flour required
- Full list of ingredients needed
- How to make it
- Tips and troubleshooting
- Shop the recipe
- Make in advance
- How to make dairy-free or vegan
- Gluten-Free Fish Pie
- What to serve this Gluten-Free Traditional Parsley Sauce with
- Other gluten-free sauce recipes you’ll love
- Gluten-Free Parsley Sauce
A Traditional English Parsley Sauce recipe is great to have up your sleeves as it can accompany so many classic dishes. We love serving it with a simple buttered grilled salmon for easy weeknights. But it also comes into play every Christmas for us as we serve it with our Glazed Ham and plenty of mashed potatoes.
Does parsley sauce contain gluten?
A lot of parsley sauce recipes can be roux based sauces made with butter and all-purpose flour mixed together to form a thickening agent. Even many prepared packets of Parsley Sauce contain wheat flour.
However this Homemade Parsley Sauce recipe is made with cornflour (cornstarch) which is naturally gluten-free. It thickens up the parsley infused milk to a thick velvety smooth sauce.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Very easy to make with ingredients you are bound to already have in plus some lovely fresh parsley from your herb garden.
- A classic British recipe which is the perfect gluten-free white sauce for fish or pork.
- You can make the sauce ahead making your weeknight meals even easier.
- Simple, fresh flavours which are enhanced by a spike of lemon and a little dijon mustard.
Watch the video to see how to make it
What is parsley sauce made of?
This recipe is a basic white sauce made with whole milk and cornflour but infused with a huge handful of fresh parsley
If you love making traditional English style sauces then you will love this easy Gluten-Free White Sauce with Cornflour which you can use as a base for so many different recipes.
Gluten-free flour required
This recipe uses cornflour (cornstarch) as the thickening agent of the sauce.
It is possible to substitute for tapioca starch or arrowroot powder, but the cornflour does give a preferred lighter result.
Full list of ingredients needed
- Whole milk. You can substitute for your favourite plant based milk if you are vegan/ dairy-free.
- Fresh parsley. Curly parsley or flat leaf parsley is fine. You can use a 25-30g bag of parsley from the supermarket.
- Cornflour (cornstarch).
- Dijon mustard. You can substitute for English mustard if you like your sauce to have more mustard oomph.
- Lemon. This recipe uses just half of the juice to lighten and spike the sauce.
- Salt. I like to use kosher salt for a gentle subtle flavour.
- Ground white pepper. You can use black pepper but white pepper is a more subtle look.
- Double cream. You can substitute heavy cream. Or if you are vegan/ dairy-free you can omit or use unsweetened cashew cream.
How to make it
For full recipe instructions go to the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Roughly chop the parsley leaves and heat with the milk to just under a boil.
- Turn the heat off and infuse for at least 30 minutes.
- Pour out 100ml of the parsley milk and whisk in the cornflour until smooth.
- Pour the cornflour slurry back into the rest of the parsley milk along with the Dijon, salt and pepper.
- Turn on to a medium heat, stirring the sauce all the while until thick, smooth and gently bubbling.
- Continue to heat until it just comes to a boil, turn to a low heat for one minute, making sure to whisk away any lumps that form. The sauce will be thick, smooth and gently bubbling.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cream until completely combined and then stir in the lemon juice and serve.
Tips and troubleshooting
- Make sure to rinse the parsley well in water as grit does tend to linger on the leaves.
- Infuse the parsley in the milk for at least 30 minutes but if you do have the time then I encourage you to infuse for up to 4 hours as the parsley flavour just intensifies the longer you do.
- If it’s just a 30 minute infusion I am happy to let infuse at room temperature but any longer and I usually chill the milk in the fridge.
- You need to whisk the cornflour into cold or room temperature milk, whisking it in whilst the milk is hot or warm would lead to a lumpy sauce.
Shop the recipe
Buy Now → Make in advance
You can make this Homemade Parsley Sauce in advance. You can make the parsley milk the day before you continue with the rest of the recipe. Allow it to infuse overnight in the fridge.
Or you can make up the whole sauce recipe ahead of time, as per the instructions. Allow to cool with parchment pressed to the surface of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming.
You can make the sauce up to 2 days before you want to serve it
How to make dairy-free or vegan
If you want to make this sauce a dairy-free parsley sauce or a vegan parsley sauce you need to make a couple of swaps.
- Switch out the whole milk for a plant based alternative. I recommend cashew milk, almond milk or even oat milk. Coconut milk can taste a bit too strong.
- And also switch out the double cream (or heavy cream) for an unsweetened cashew cream. This adds the necessary creamy factor. If you can’t get hold of cashew cream then you can use my recipe here for Cashew Cream but just don’t add in the vanilla extract or maple syrup. I don’t recommend coconut cream only here as the taste is too strong.
Gluten-Free Fish Pie
This Parsley Sauce is lovely used in a Gluten-Free Fish Pie.
- Cook cubed salmon, smoked haddock and cod (or use a fish pie mix) in the milk at the very beginning of the process for 10 minutes at a gentle simmer.
- Remove the fish from the milk with a slotted spoon and place at the bottom of a baking dish.
- Continue making the parsley sauce exactly as the instructions below.
- Pour the finished sauce over the fish. Cover with mashed potato and top with parmesan cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C / 180°C fan / gas mark 5.
What to serve this Gluten-Free Traditional Parsley Sauce with
- Grilled salmon or white fish like hake, cod or halibut.
- Salmon Fishcakes
- Sautéed shrimp
- Pork Chops
- Glazed Christmas Ham or other baked ham recipes
- And imagine all of the above with a side helping of mashed potatoes as well and you will have it made.
Other gluten-free sauce recipes you’ll love
- Gluten-Free Cheese Sauce (made with a roux)
- Gluten-Free White Sauce (Bechamel)
- Gluten-Free Homemade Custard
- Gluten-Free Gravy
- Gluten-Free Onion Gravy
- Gluten-Free Bread Sauce
- Dairy-Free Peppercorn Sauce
- Green Tomato Ketchup
- Homemade Brown Sauce
I urge you to give this Gluten-Free Creamy Parsley Sauce a try. If you do then please leave a comment below and give the recipe a rating which helps others find the recipe on Google. If you then go on to use this recipe as a launch pad for your own culinary creation then I’d also love it if you’d share it and tag me on Instagram. It is so lovely for me to see your versions and variations of my recipes.
Gluten-Free Parsley Sauce
Ingredients
- 500 ml whole milk
- 2 large handfuls fresh parsley - 25g bag, roughly chopped
- 30 g cornflour - cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ lemon - juiced
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- â…› teaspoon ground white pepper
- 75 g double cream
Instructions
- Pour the milk into a medium sized saucepan and whisk in the parsley.
- Turn the heat on and bring to just under a boil. Turn the heat off and allow the milk to infuse with the parsley for at least 30 minutes.
- Pour out 100ml of the parsley milk and whisk in the cornflour until smooth.
- Pour the cornflour slurry back into the rest of the parsley milk along with the Dijon, salt and pepper and turn the heat back on.
- Bring the sauce up to a gentle boil, stirring all the while, making sure you get into the corners of the saucepan which is where the lumps tend to settle.
- Continue to heat until it just comes to a boil, turn the heat right down for one minute, making sure to whisk away any lumps that form. The sauce will be thick, smooth and gently bubbling.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cream until completely combined and then stir in the lemon juice and serve.
Video
Notes
Vegan/Dairy-Free Version
Substitute the whole milk for cashew, almond or oat milk and substitute the double cream for cashew cream.Tips
- Make sure to rinse the parsley in water to remove any grit.
- Infuse the milk for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 hours if you can.
- The milk must be cooled to room temperature before whisking in the cornflour.
- If you are not serving right away and you want to prevent a skin from forming on the top of the sauce, set aside or store with parchment pressed onto the surface.
Andrew says
Hi can you freeze this once its cooled?
Georgina Hartley says
Yes you can!