How to make bearnaise sauce dairy free

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp Tarragon leaves – chopped
• 1 Shallot – chopped
• 2 egg yolks
• 75 g plant butter
• 2 tbsp Water
• 50 ml white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Black pepper – crushed
• Salt to taste

Equipment

• 1 Saucepan
• 1 Bowl,

Instructions

Step 1 – Make a Bearnaise sauce essence

• Put the chopped shallot, 1 tbsp Tarragon, white wine vinegar, the crushed black pepper & a little bit of salt into a saucepan. Heat to boiling until it has reduced by 2/3 rds. Then let it cool.
• Pour the essence through a sieve and (using the back of a spoon) carefully squeeze as much as possible into a bowl or jug. Then pour the liquid back into the saucepan.

Step 2 – Make the Bearnaise sauce

• Heat the saucepan containing the Bearnaise sauce essence on a low heat. In a bowl mix the egg yolks with the water and pour it into the saucepan. Stir until it it is thick & fluffy. (The easiest way is to use a whisk).
• Cut the block of butter into small bits. Then slowly add them into the saucepan, melting one block at a time. Continually stirring well.
• Finally add the last spoonful of Tarragon, mix well and serve.

5 Key questions:

1. – Does Bearnaise sauce contain dairy?

The Bearnaise sauce dairy free recipe does not contain dairy (lactose) and is also gluten free.

Original Bearnaise sauce – as you will get in France – will almost always be made using cows butter i.e. it will contain dairy.

Different texture but….

When I made it the Bearnaise sauce was slightly lumpy, which could be due to the use of plant butter. I did however use a saucepan and will try to make the recipe again using the bain-marie method (when you make it in a bowl floating in warm water). That might result in a more smoother sauce.

However, I think the flavour of this recipe (using plant butter) tastes just as well or even better than the original recipe using cows butter.

2. – Can you keep Bearnaise sauce?

Yes and no. The Bearnaise essence you can save in a fridge or even freeze for later use.

The Bearnaise sauce you can not keep and ideally you should make it just before using it. However, if you make it earlier then the best way to keep it warm is to float a bowl containing the sauce in a large pan containing warm water. That will keep the sauce warm and also stop it from separating.

3. – Is fresh tarragon better than dried?

4. – How to keep Bearnaise sauce from separating?

This is one of the most common problems when making Bearnaise sauce and there are 3 ways of solving it:

1. Fill a large bowl with a little iced water
   • When you notice the sauce in beginning to separate. Simply but the saucepan into the bowl with iced water and stir well. (The bowl of water will cool your bearnaise sauce to stop it separating)
2. Ice cube
   • Or you can add a small ice cube into the sauce and stir well
3. Use lemon juice
   • Or if none of the above work then you can put 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tbsp of the separated sauce in a warm bowl and stir until it thickens. Then add 1 tbsp at a time of the sauce into the bowl, stirring well.

5. – What does bearnaise sauce go with?

The country recipe challenge.

This recipe is part of my country recipe challenge, where I am trying to find 1 recipe from each country in the world.

The easiest way to keep updated is to follow me on either my Instagram or Facebook page.

Latest recipes