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Seafood salad sauce is the most important ingredient in this dish. The famous French culinary specialist, author of the Culinary Guide, Auguste Escoffier, called sauces “the living water of cooking.”
Depending on the requirements that the cook places on the dish, a properly selected and prepared sauce can highlight the taste of the salad ingredients, and can add completely new flavor shades to the usual shrimp, mussels, octopus tentacles, rapana and other seafood included in the salad.
Experienced chefs advise adding red pepper to dishes with mussels, since this seafood really “loves” spiciness.
Sauces for salads made from seafood are very diverse; they can be found in the culinary traditions of almost all peoples who live on the shores of the seas. We invite you to familiarize yourself with recipes and methods for preparing such sauces, the most common in European cuisines.
How to make seafood salad sauce - 15 varieties
- Persillade maison sauce
- Sweet sauce with mustard
- Avocado, lime and wasabi sauce
- Soy-lemon sauce
- Mild yoghurt sauce
- Shrimp salad sauce
- Mustard Sauce for Seafood
- Red sauce
- Classic French shrimp bisque sauce
- Simple savory sauce
- "Salsa verde fria" - Spanish green sauce
- Black Balsamic Vinegar Cream Sauce
- Sauce for warm salads
- Roman sauce
- Delicious sauce for warm salads
Persillade maison sauce
A classic light French sauce that is used as a dressing for seafood salads.
Ingredients:
- Parsley – 1 large bunch;
- Garlic – 2 cloves;
- Olive oil – ½ cup;
- Salt to taste.
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. The sauce is ready.
https://youtu.be/AU8D07PZu2I
Basic principles
Seafood salad dressing is an important component of a dish, which can highlight its merits or completely change the taste. The famous French culinary specialist Auguste Estofier calls sauces for dishes made from herbs and other ingredients “the living water of cooking,” noting that only thanks to them you can influence all the qualities of a dish at your discretion.
Most existing recipes indicate that seafood loves citrus juice, so the ingredient is always included in the dressing. For example, there are several simple sauces that are suitable for absolutely all salads that contain fresh herbs and gifts from salty bodies of water.
Experienced chefs note that preparing the dressing is not difficult, since most housewives always have all the ingredients on hand. The recommendations boil down to the fact that you need to mix fresh lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar and spices in a deep bowl. The cooking procedure takes no more than 15 minutes.
To ensure that your salad dressing always turns out delicious, experienced chefs recommend:
- Use soy sauce.
- Keep a whole lemon in the freezer.
- Soak the onion rings.
- Add herbs to the dish.
- Always add sugar along with salt.
Experts noted that soy sauce can enhance the taste of any dish or correct errors in a dressing that has been over-salted or peppered. By keeping this ingredient always on hand, even a novice housewife can pleasantly surprise guests with a delicious treat.
Frozen lemon is the best addition to seafood dishes if you don't have other ingredients to season them in your kitchen. A small amount of the yellow fruit just needs to be grated and sprinkled on food to get a good fresh taste. If the salad includes fresh onions, then chefs from European restaurants recommend soaking it in a liquid consisting of 1 tbsp. l. soda and a glass of water. The procedure will help reduce the bitterness of the vegetable.
Fresh and dried herbs and spices enhance the flavor of the sauce. You need to remember that oregano, rosemary, thyme or marjoram are added at the beginning of cooking, and parsley, dill, green onions, tarragon and basil at the end. Sugar can enhance and emphasize the taste of any dish. Experts recommend adding some sweet crystals to sauces to make them richer.
Experienced chefs note that to prepare a delicious dressing for any dish, the following ingredients are important:
- the basis;
- aroma;
- color.
The basis is usually mayonnaise, olive oil, sour cream or yogurt. The aromatic part is made up of spices and herbs, and the color of the dish is given by fried or fresh vegetables. Making sauces gives the cook's imagination room to be creative. Sometimes even the most inappropriate ingredients at first glance allow the chef to create a masterpiece.
Sweet sauce with mustard
This is one of the traditional sauces for shrimp salads. You can add chopped boiled quail eggs and cherry tomatoes cut in half to the dish.
Ingredients:
- Ready-made, not very spicy mustard – 1 teaspoon;
- Olive oil – 150 ml;
- Sugar – 5 grams;
- Garlic – 2 cloves.
Preparation:
Mix olive oil, mustard and sugar well. Grind finely chopped garlic and add to the mixture. Mix everything thoroughly. The sauce is ready.
With added honey
Cooks in ancient Rome added honey to seasonings for seafood dishes. They believed that natural sweetness would highlight the taste of water gifts. The recipe is suitable for those who love ginger.
Ingredients
The recipe includes:
- liquid honey (1 tbsp);
- white wine vinegar (1 tbsp);
- vegetable oil (50 ml);
- ginger root (2 cm);
- basil (30 g);
- mint (2 branches);
- mustard beans (20 g).
Add salt and sugar to taste.
Step-by-step cooking process
To prepare honey sauce for sea salad, you need:
- Peel, rinse under running water and chop the ginger root.
- In a deep container, grind the mustard seeds to a powder.
- Mix ginger root and mustard with vegetable oil and let stand for 10 minutes.
- Rinse the greens under running water and separate the leaves from the stem.
- Grind the leaves in any convenient way (stems are not needed).
- Mix all ingredients in a deep container and bring the mixture until smooth.
Dress the salad with honey sauce just before serving.
Avocado, lime and wasabi sauce
This is a light savory sauce with a slightly spicy aftertaste.
Ingredients:
- Avocado – 1 piece;
- Wasabi – one and a half teaspoons;
- Grapeseed oil – 60 milliliters;
- Rice vinegar – 3 tablespoons;
- Water – 3 tablespoons;
- Sea salt - to taste.
Preparation:
Slice the avocado. Mix with rice vinegar, wasabi and water. Grind until creamy in a blender. Add salt and oil. Mix thoroughly until a uniform consistency is obtained.
https://youtu.be/EA3rCfmkQvw
With the addition of arugula
The arugula dressing is suitable for a seafood dish in the summer. The sauce is easy to prepare, and the process itself does not take much time.
Ingredients
The recipe includes:
- raw egg (1 pc.);
- lemon (1 pc.);
- arugula (0.1 kg).
Add salt, oregano and basil to taste.
Step-by-step cooking process
To prepare the arugula dressing, you need:
- Wash the arugula under running water and chop it in any convenient way.
- Squeeze the juice from the lemon and beat it with the raw egg.
- Add arugula, salt and herbs to the egg and mix again until smooth.
You can season the salad with sauce immediately after preparing it.
Soy-lemon sauce
A universal sauce for any salads based on seafood - shrimp, mussels, crab meat, octopus tentacles.
Ingredients:
- Soy sauce – 2 tablespoons;
- Olive oil – 150 milliliters;
- Garlic – 1 clove;
- Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons;
- Salt, ground black pepper, poured basil - to taste.
Preparation:
Peel the garlic and press through a press or chop as finely as possible and grind between two spoons. Place the garlic in olive oil, add soy sauce, lemon juice, crushed with your hands and then finely chopped basil leaves, pepper and salt. Beat the mixture thoroughly with a blender or broom. The sauce is ready. Can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than a week.
If the sauce recipe requires the addition of sour cream, yogurt, cream, mayonnaise, choose products with the lowest fat content. This way you will get a sauce that will not “clog” the natural original taste of seafood.
Tips and tricks
Seafood salad dressing is a must for these treats. The sauce attracts culinary experts not only because of the variety of options for its preparation and the simplicity of the process, but also because it can easily replace one ingredient with another without fear of spoiling the taste.
Products | What to replace |
Mayonnaise | Sour cream/yogurt/cream |
Chicken eggs | Quail eggs |
Olive oil | Sunflower oil |
Napoli sauce | Mild ketchup/tomato paste |
For beginners who are just planning to create masterpieces in the kitchen, experts recommend remembering a few rules that will help you make tasty and aromatic dressings for fish dishes.
Cooking secrets:
- It is better to prepare mayonnaise yourself. To do this, you need to grind 1 yolk with salt and gradually add 200 ml of vegetable oil.
- It is better to use sour cream with low or medium fat content.
- The yogurt for the sauce is only natural and not sweet.
- If possible, fresh greens should not be cut, but rather picked with your hands. This will allow the grass to release more essential oils, juice and aroma.
- Sugar allows foods to develop, so a small amount of sweet crystals in a dish doesn't hurt.
- To give the dressing a pink color, add tomatoes, red caviar or tomato paste.
- Instead of the usual table salt, it is recommended to use sea salt.
- Soy sauce will remove saltiness or excessive spiciness. In addition, it balances the taste.
- It is recommended to choose only fresh products as ingredients for dressings.
- The sauce should not be stored in the refrigerator for more than 7 days, because it loses its taste.
Seafood salad can be complemented with a delicious dressing. Gourmets note that in most cases the entire taste of the dish depends on the sauce.
Mild yoghurt sauce
This slightly sour sauce perfectly highlights the natural taste of seafood.
Ingredients:
- Yogurt – 200 milliliters;
- Olive oil – 2 tablespoons;
- Balsamic vinegar – 1 teaspoon;
- Garlic – 2 cloves;
- Black pepper – 1 teaspoon;
- Salt - to taste.
Preparation:
Finely chop the garlic and add to the yogurt along with other ingredients. Mix everything thoroughly. The sauce is ready.
https://youtu.be/0yuA6bVGY2o
Thai
Thais love seafood dishes, so they also have a dressing for such treats. The sauce has a spicy and at the same time refreshing taste.
Ingredients
The recipe includes:
- hot pepper (1 pc.);
- sweet onion (1 pc.);
- mint leaves (1 tbsp);
- olive oil (2 tbsp);
- soy sauce (2 tbsp.);
- lime juice (2 tbsp);
- sugar (1 tbsp).
There is no salt in this dressing.
Step-by-step process for creating a dish
To prepare Thai dressing for dishes you need:
- Peel the peel, rinse under running water and finely chop the onion.
- Remove the seeds and tail from the hot pepper, rinse under running water, and chop.
- Wash the mint leaves under water and tear them with your hands.
- In a deep container, mix butter, sauce, sugar and lime juice.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the liquid ingredients and thoroughly mix the contents of the bowl until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
You can add sauce to any seafood dish.
Shrimp salad sauce
For shrimp salads, it is better to choose large ones - “Tiger” or “Royal”.
This is a classic sauce that is used as a base for other sauces in the cuisine of countries bordering the Adriatic. It can be modified by adding ketchup, grated tomatoes, and sweet peppers crushed in a blender to a uniform mass.
Ingredients:
- Olive oil – 150 milliliters;
- Lemon juice – 50 milliliters;
- Cream (can be replaced with low-fat sour cream) – 2 tablespoons;
- Garlic – 2 cloves;
- Grainy mustard – 7 grams;
- Dill and parsley - a couple of sprigs each;
- Salt, pepper, dried spices - to taste.
Preparation:
Place olive oil, cream, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, herbs, salt and spices in a blender bowl. Beat everything thoroughly until fluffy and homogeneous.
Ingredients for dressings
Seafood salad dressings are something special. You can't get by with universal mayonnaise here. To obtain an exquisite taste that will not spoil the dish, you can use a variety of ingredients.
Most dressings are prepared using vegetable oil. However, you need to take olive oil. It has a more delicate taste and subtle aroma. Sometimes sesame, mustard and other oils are also used.
Vinegar is no less in demand. It adds heat to the sauce and is responsible for achieving a uniform dressing structure. However, it is recommended to use wine vinegar - red or white.
Juices from berries and fruits are also used to prepare delicious dressings for seafood salads. Fresh lime or lemon juice is simply irreplaceable for sea cocktails. Citrus juices add piquancy. It's no secret that mussels and shrimp are always eaten with lemons.
Sometimes mustard is used in dressings. As a rule, this is Dijon. They add just a little bit of it to add spice and flavor. Do not get carried away with mustard, as it can spoil the taste of the dressing.
No less interesting is honey in sauces. It is also actively used. In addition to a slight hint of sweetness, it imparts uniformity to the dressing. Honey goes well with soy sauce. Together they make a great couple.
Recipes for seafood salad dressings often rely on yogurt. True, it is necessary to take the product without any additives. Yogurt perfectly complements the taste of meat, fish and seafood. Its acidity gives a completely different taste than olive oil. But together these two components combine perfectly. Therefore, there is room for imagination in inventing new sauces.
Chopped herbs are also used for dressings. Well, the finishing touch is always spices. But you need to add them wisely so that the salad doesn’t turn into something terrible.
Mustard Sauce for Seafood
This sauce is used in cooking along the Mediterranean coast of France.
Ingredients:
- Olive oil – 3 tablespoons;
- Grain mustard – 1 teaspoon;
- Classic table mustard – 2 teaspoons;
- Honey – ½ teaspoon;
- Cumin – 1/3 teaspoon;
- Red pepper – ¼ teaspoon;
- Marjoram – 1/3 teaspoon;
- Sea salt - to taste.
Preparation:
Mix two types of mustard, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add olive oil. To stir thoroughly. Add honey. Stir and add cumin, red pepper, marjoram, and salt to the sauce. Mix while whisking. The sauce is ready.
Red sauce
This delicate sauce is intended for dressing salads with tiger prawns. Ketchup adds a slight tomato flavor to the flavor, as well as a reddish tint. If you want to add delicate spring notes of taste, add finely chopped dill and parsley to the dish.
The famous culinary specialist Jimmy Oliver advises not to chop the greens, but to first mash them and then tear them with your hands - this way they will be more flavorful.
Ingredients:
- Mild ketchup – 200 grams;
- Cream (or sour cream of medium fat content) – 100 milliliters;
- Delicacy mayonnaise – 100 grams;
- Garlic – 6 grams;
- Walnuts – 30 grams.
Preparation:
Lightly fry the nuts in a dry frying pan and chop. Pass the garlic through a press. Combine all products in one bowl and beat with a kitchen whisk until creamy. You can beat it using a blender.
Mayonnaise sold in stores contains emulsifiers and preservatives. However, making this basic sauce, used in many seafood salad dressings, is extremely simple. Grind 1 egg yolk with salt until creamy. Then gradually add 200 milliliters of olive oil in small portions, thoroughly whisking the mixture with a kitchen broom or beat in a mixer.
With ketchup
Red sauce is served with shrimp dishes. It is prepared without herbs, but, if desired, you can put fresh dill or parsley there. Such ingredients will add spring freshness to the dish and enhance the aroma.
Ingredients
The recipe includes:
- mayonnaise (0.1 kg);
- sour cream (10 ml);
- tomato ketchup (0.2 kg);
- garlic (6 g);
- walnuts (30 g).
It is recommended to take sour cream of medium fat content, and delicacy mayonnaise. Salt, sugar and spices are added to taste.
Step-by-step cooking process
To prepare red seafood sauce you need:
- Peel the garlic and chop it in any convenient way.
- Grind the walnut kernels.
- Mix all the ingredients in a deep container and use a whisk or blender to bring them until smooth.
Some chefs recommend frying the nuts in a frying pan for several minutes before chopping. This makes them richer and drier.
For those who decide to add fresh herbs to the sauce, experts recommend not cutting them, but tearing them with your hands. This will give the dressing a pronounced fresh aroma and taste.
Classic French shrimp bisque sauce
Bisque is the name of a method invented by French chefs to concentrate flavor. For seafood salads, Bisque is prepared from the shells of sea crustaceans.
Ingredients:
- Shrimp shells – 500 grams;
- Onion - one small onion;
- Small carrots - 1 piece;
- Celery – 1 stalk;
- Olive oil for frying – 1 tablespoon;
- Water – 1 liter;
- Napoli sauce or tomato paste – 200 grams.
Preparation:
Place a thick-bottomed pan on the fire, heat it up very high and burn the vegetables in it. Add thoroughly washed shrimp shells. Fry. To fill with water. Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan, add olive oil and fry the Napoli sauce or tomato paste, then add the frying to the pan with the future sauce. Cook over low heat for 15 hours. Then thoroughly grind the contents of the pan with a blender and strain. The sauce is ready. It can be used as a base for all seafood salad dressings.
Sweet and sour sauce for shrimp: a quick recipe
Chinese sweet and sour sauce is a traditional accompaniment to shrimp in Asian countries. It is prepared in different ways. Often, various juices are used as a base, for example, pineapple or orange, cranberry and other sour ingredients. The sauce can be served as a seafood dressing or used as a marinade for shrimp.
This dressing allows you to experiment. If desired, it can be varied with vegetables, garlic, hot pepper and other ingredients.
Ingredients:
- Hot pepper – 3 pieces;
- Garlic – 3 cloves;
- Fresh ginger root – 3 centimeters;
- Water – 250 ml;
- Sugar – 100 grams;
- Salt – 2 teaspoons;
- Rice vinegar – 80 ml;
- Tomato paste – 1 tablespoon;
- Corn starch – 1 tablespoon.
Cooking method:
- We clean the hot pepper from the stalk and seeds, remove the jumpers;
- Pass pepper, ginger, garlic through a blender. You can simply chop everything with a knife;
- Bring some of the water to a boil in a saucepan, add sugar and salt to it. Stir until they are completely dissolved;
- Then add rice vinegar, tomato paste and vegetables. Bring the mixture to a boil again;
- Dilute the starch with the remaining water and mix well until it is completely dissolved;
- Pour the starch into the boiling sauce, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook for about 3 minutes. During this time, the starch will swell and the dressing will thicken.
Simple savory sauce
This sauce is suitable for those who primarily appreciate the flavor of seafood in salads.
Ingredients:
- Lime – 1 piece;
- Ginger root - about 1 centimeter piece;
- Honey – 3 teaspoons;
- Olive oil – 1/3 cup;
- Water – 100 milliliters.
Preparation:
Remove the zest from the lime and squeeze out the juice. Finely grate the ginger. Dissolve honey in warm water. Add all ingredients to olive oil and bring the mixture over low heat until smooth. The sauce should not be allowed to boil. Simmer on fire for 10 minutes. The sauce is ready.
If you want to give the sauce a pinkish tint, you can add red caviar or a little mild ketchup to it when grinding the ingredients in a blender. You can also add cherry tomatoes.
"Salsa verde fria" - Spanish green sauce
This is the Spanish favorite dressing for sea crustacean salad.
Ingredients:
- Capers (they can be replaced with small pickled cucumbers) – 100 grams;
- Garlic – 1 clove;
- Small onion - 1 piece;
- Anchovies – 8 pieces;
- Parsley - parsley - 1 small bunch;
- Lemon – 1 piece;
- Olive oil – 1/2 cup.
Preparation:
Finely grate the capers, onion and garlic. Finely chop the anchovies and parsley. Pour olive oil and lemon juice over these ingredients. Add salt and pepper. Let it brew for ½ hour. Then grind everything in a blender.
Shrimp dressing with pineapple
We will make a sour cream dressing for a salad dish with shrimp and pineapple. Light, with a pleasant sourness, it will highlight the taste of shrimp meat and add piquancy to the pineapple. We will need:
- sour cream 15% – 1 glass;
- cilantro – 3 sprigs;
- salt and ground black pepper to taste.
Preparation:
- Chop the cilantro thoroughly.
- Pour our greens into sour cream, stir, add salt and pepper, mix thoroughly. That's it, the gravy is ready.
You can decorate the salad with a few cilantro leaves.
Black Balsamic Vinegar Cream Sauce
This sauce perfectly emphasizes complex flavors, which is why it is often used to dress salads that include a large number of different seafood.
Ingredients:
- Black balsamic vinegar - 70 milliliters;
- Honey – 30 grams;
- Grapeseed oil (can be replaced with extra virgin olive oil) – 200 milliliters;
- Pepper, sea salt - to taste.
Preparation:
To prepare the sauce, mix vinegar and honey in a bowl and heat the mixture in a water bath. When steam starts to form, pour in the oil in a thin stream and, stirring, cook until thickened. Season with pepper and salt to taste, cool.
Without mayonnaise
Seafood salad dressing sometimes does not contain mayonnaise. This is due to the fact that not everyone likes the sauce, which was invented back in 1757 by a French royal chef.
When the soldiers tired of eating only eggs and olive oil while defending the city of Mayone, on the island of Menorca, and withstanding a multi-day siege, the court chef decided to create something new and ground egg yolks with salt and oil, obtaining a white dressing called “Mayonnaise Sauce.” " or "Mayonnaise" after the place where it was invented.
Ingredients
The recipe includes:
- vegetable oil (3 tbsp);
- lemon juice (2 tbsp);
- nutmeg.
Add a mixture of peppers, salt and sugar to taste.
Step-by-step cooking process
To prepare a dressing without mayonnaise, you need:
- Grate the nutmeg to make ¼ tsp.
- Take a deep mixing container and put all the ingredients there.
- Mix the contents of the container with a whisk until smooth.
- Pour the resulting dressing over the sea salad.
Fresh herbs are used to decorate the dish.
Sauce for warm salads
This dressing is used by Western Mediterranean cooks for salads based on mussels.
Ingredients:
- Shallots – 15 grams;
- Limoncello – 20 grams;
- White wine - 150 milliliters;
- Cream – 150 grams
- Lemon - half;
- Parsley – 15 grams;
- Basil – 15 grams;
- Chili pepper - a small piece;
- Salt - to taste.
Preparation:
Mix cream and wine in a frying pan with a thick bottom. Add other ingredients and simmer over low heat without letting it boil for ½ hour. The peculiarity of this sauce is that it is not poured over the salad mixture, but rather, seafood is added to the sauce and cooked over low heat for several minutes.
Learning to cook delicacies
In culinary circles, red fish is called king fish. Therefore, the sauce for baking red fish in the oven should be truly royal. We suggest you take note of this recipe.
Required Ingredients
- cream with any percentage of fat content – 150 ml;
- 10 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice;
- 40 g butter;
- white pepper, salt;
- dry white wine – 50 ml.
How to prepare sauces for fish and seafood
- Place a saucepan or frying pan on the stove and pour in the wine.
- Bring the wine to a boil over moderate heat.
- Then add the cream in a thin stream and stir constantly.
- Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, white pepper and a pinch of salt.
- Boil for a few minutes until thickened.
- Remove the sauce from the stove and add softened butter.
- Mix everything thoroughly again.
- This sauce can be supplemented with herbs, olives or capers.
Roman sauce
The base of this sauce is regular mayonnaise. White wine adds lightness to the sauce.
Ingredients:
- Mayonnaise - 70 grams;
- Lemon juice – 2 teaspoons;
- White wine – 3 tablespoons;
- Table mustard – ½ teaspoon;
- Dry garlic, dry mint, dry basil - 1/3 teaspoon each.
Preparation:
Add wine and lemon juice to mayonnaise. Mix thoroughly and add mustard. While whisking, add salt and herbs. Stir until uniform consistency. The sauce is ready.
Tuna dressing
It is best to use all kinds of sauces for dressing salads, not mayonnaise. But, if you are a fan of it, you can make your own at home.
To prepare an unusual mayonnaise, we need one egg and the juice of half a lemon. Mix them in a deep container and add a spoonful of mustard. Next, using a mixer, we begin to beat the mass, gradually pouring in about ½ liter of vegetable oil. It's better to take olive oil. After the mayonnaise begins to thicken, add canned tuna (can). This sauce is ideal for seafood.