Best Sauces For Trout ⋆ 9 Of The Best Pairings! ⋆

If you are looking to serve up some trout, you’ll want to find a delicious sauce to serve along with it. That’s exactly what we’re going to explore here today. We’ll also be looking at sauces that do not pair well, and you’re going to want to avoid, too. So without further ado, let’s take a look, shall we?

So, what are the best sauces for trout? The best sauces for trout often feature lemon and cream. Lemon butter sauce and creamy garlic and herb sauces are ideal. You can make either a cooked cream sauce or a creamy cold sauce made with sour cream or yogurt as a base. The cooked versions generally have white wine in them, but you can also choose a melted butter sauce. As an alternative, you can consider a tomato sauce for trout.

So with that said, below you’ll find a list of great sauces for trout (all the variations mentioned above and more) and basic instructions for how to make them, as well as some tips for sauces to avoid.

The Best Sauces For Trout

Lemon Cream Sauce

This super simple lemon and cream sauce isn’t just easy to make—it tastes great too. If you’re looking for a classic sauce that doesn’t take too much time to make, this is the perfect option.

Chop up some shallots and place them in a pan together with lemon juice and wine. Cook over medium-high heat. 

Reduce the wine from half a cup to about a tablespoon, then add cream and continue cooking for about a minute.

Remove from the heat, and stir in butter and capers. Season to taste. Serve the trout with the sauce spooned on top. 

Cooking this sauce takes very little time! 

You can find the full recipe here. 

Garlic Lemon Butter Herb Sauce

This is another take on lemon sauce. In this recipe, you emulsify the sauce with butter. What that really means is that you add butter to the sauce to make it glossy. 

For this to happen, it’s important the sauce isn’t too hot when you stir in the butter. 

You’ll need lemon juice, minced/chopped garlic, parsley, white wine, and butter to make the sauce. And, of course, salt and pepper to taste. 

Make the sauce in the pan you cooked the fish (granted, you seared the trout–otherwise, you can use another pan).

 Add the lemon juice, white wine, and minced garlic. Cook over low-medium heat for about one minute. The garlic should start to soften. 

Then remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the butter and parsley. If desired, season with salt and pepper.

Put the cooked fish back in the pan, spoon over the sauce, then plate it. Garnish with parsley on top. 

You’ll find the full recipe here. 

Creamy Dill Sauce

This sauce also calls for lemon, but it requires no cooking! What’s more, it’s deliciously creamy and flavored with dill–and herb that works very well with fish. 

So what will you need to make this creamy dill sauce for your trout? 

You’ll need sour cream, lemon juice, Dijon mustard (or hot English mustard), garlic powder or minced garlic, fresh dill, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and sugar (or honey). 

You may also want to add milk to make the sauce less thick, or olive oil to make the sauce a bit creamier.

Or you can use mayo to mellow it out a bit–make it less tart and more creamy. 

To make the sauce, chop up the dill and mince the garlic (if you’re using fresh garlic and not just the powder). 

Juice the lemon and grate the peel to make the zest. Then combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir. 

Easy to make, easy to eat. That’s to say–it’s delicious! 

You’ll find the full recipe here.

Lemon Butter Sauce

As you can tell, lemon butter sauces are popular when serving trout. 

For this particular lemon butter sauce, you’ll need butter, lemon juice, and fresh basil. What you do is simply crush the basil in a mortar. 

Then melt the butter in a pan, add the basil and lemon juice, and bring to a boil while stirring. Then remove from the heat and pour over the fish. 

If inspiration hits you, you can garnish the fish with some basil leaves. 

Find the full recipe here. 

Tomato Sauce

Finally, a sauce that doesn’t have a lot of lemon in it! Instead, this sauce has a tomato base. 

For this sauce, you’ll need olive oil, shallots, garlic, bay leaves, a can of chopped tomatoes, sherry vinegar, and butter. 

Start by frying sliced shallots in olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt. 

You will want to cook them over low-medium heat for about eight minutes while stirring–they should start to brown on the edges. 

Stir in the garlic and fry till fragrant–about one minute. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes, sherry vinegar, and seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes. 

When the sauce is done, spoon some onto the plates, put the fish on top, and spoon some more sauce on top of the fish. 

You’ll find the full recipe here. 

Yogurt Sauce

If you felt the tomato sauce required too much cooking, here’s a sauce that requires none!

That’s to say, you still have to prep the ingredients, but after that, all you have to do is put them in a bowl and stir. 

So what will you need for this sauce? Yogurt, shredded cucumber, fresh dill weed, lemon zest, olive oil, salt, and (lemon) pepper. 

If you want to make the taste a bit rounder, use half yogurt and half mayonnaise. You can add some garlic powder if you want to, if you’re a garlic lover, that is! 

You’ll find the full recipe here. 

Garlic and Dill Sauce

This sauce does require a bit of cooking, but it’s still darn easy to make!

What you’ll need is white wine, minced garlic, dill weed, butter, and mustard.

Put all the ingredients in a pan, bring to a boil and cook uncovered for about two minutes–the sauce should reduce by half. 

You need to stir constantly while cooking. When done, remove from the heat and stir in the mustard. 

Spoon the sauce over the cooked trout and enjoy!

You’ll find the full recipe here. 

Lemon-Marjoram Cream Sauce

Marjoram is a herb not on this list so far, but clearly, it should be! Lemon is an almost constant ingredient, and it features heavily in this recipe, too. 

For this recipe, you’ll also need shallots, white wine, cream, apple cider vinegar, and butter.

To prepare the sauce, chop the shallots and marjoram, then place them in a saucepan. Add white wine, cream, and vinegar. 

Bring to a boil and continue to cook over high heat for a couple of minutes while stirring occasionally. Reduce to about half. 

Remove from heat and strain. Add back to a saucepan and cook over low heat. Whisk in the butter and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Plate the fish and spoon the sauce on top. 

Look here for the full recipe. 

Lemon Chive Sauce

This is another cold sauce but a little different from the other two on this list. It’s also recommended you pair it with smoked trout, though you can certainly serve it with trout that’s been prepared in other ways, too. 

Cut up some dill and chives. Then put them in a bowl together with mayonnaise, sour cream, crème Fraiche, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Stir to combine. 

Serve drizzled over the trout or on the side. 

You’ll find the full recipe here.  

What Types of Sauces Pair Best With Trout?

Trout is most commonly served with a herb and lemon cream sauce or garlic cream sauce. Sometimes a combination of all three. Herbs that flavor the sauces include marjoram, dill, basil, and chives. You can also serve your trout with a tomato-based sauce or a yogurt and cucumber sauce. 

If in a hurry, an easy sauce for trout is a sour cream, or sour cream and mayo, based sauce flavored with lemon and your choice of herbs–most likely, dill. 

You can experiment to come up with your own preferred recipe. You can even omit the lemon if it’s not your cup of tea. 

You can also cook a creamy sauce with lemon, cream, and white wine. 

Some people prefer their trout served with melted butter–perhaps flavored with lemon and herbs or garlic. 

A yogurt-based sauce with cucumber can also be served with your trout.  

What Sauces To Avoid Serving With Trout 

Trout does well with a creamy sauce that has fairly mild flavors. Pouring hot sauce over your trout is, therefore, not recommended. Nor spicy sauces at large. 

You don’t normally pour bottled sauces like hot sauce, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, and the like over your trout. 

If you want those flavors, you need to incorporate them into a cream-based sauce. 

You can make a cooked cream sauce, or a cold sour cream/yogurt and mayo-based sauce. 

Even so, as a general rule, a spicy sauce is not commonly served with trout as the meat is very mild. 

Likewise, while you might use mustard in a sauce for your trout, you won’t serve the trout with a dash of mustard on its own. 

Looking for the best fish sauce pairings? Then check out my definitive guide below:

• Best Sauces For Fish ⋆ How To Ensure The Perfect Pairing ⋆