An Easy Béchamel Sauce for Healthier Vegetables

I’ve never been one to shy away from my vegetables, but getting my son and especially the husband on board is a little trickier. This sauce is the perfect blend of tangy and creamy and goes great with veggies of all kinds. You may find that the veggies start to disappear when they’re covered in this delicious, easy bechamel sauce.

A few months ago I’d never even heard of béchamel sauce, but now it goes on every piece of fish and as many veggies as I can manage. I had checked the Nourishing Traditions cookbook out from my local library and discovered a section dedicated solely to buttery delicious sauces. I made a few tweaks to the original recipe of course, since I have a knack for never following recipes precisely.

Superfood your veggies

Not only does this sauce taste amazing though, but it helps to increase the nutritional value of your vegetables. It’s made with lots of butter that help your body absorb significantly more of the vitamins and micronutrients found in vegetables. It doesn’t make sense to eat vegetables if you’re not getting that much nutrition out of them.

I found it very interesting that in the past, béchamel, hollandaise and other sauces full of healthy fats were almost always used when veggies were served. Someone lent me a cookbook from the 1930’s and I’ve loved discovering all of the old, traditional recipes. There are tons of sugary desserts, but there are also plenty of nutritionally dense sauces for all of the meats and veggies. Since I had to return Nourishing Traditions to the library, I dug out the cookbook from the 1930’s and used the béchamel sauce in it as a template for this one.

The secret sauce to an easy bechamel

The original recipes call for straining out and discarding the onions after they’ve cooked, but I thought that was a waste of good flavor. As long as you have a powerful blender, you’ll still get a super smooth sauce. I use my Vitamix at least once a day and it gives this easy béchamel sauce a very creamy consistency.

Don’t be afraid to make this with the wine. The majority of the alcohol will cook out during the simmering stage and yield a phenomenal sweet and rich flavor. Chicken or vegetable broth can be substituted though if you want to skip the wine.

Easy Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients

• ½ red onion finely chopped
• 3 Tbsp white wine, my favorite is a sweet Reisling (can use broth if desired)
• 3 Tbsp red wine or white vinegar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup room temperature butter
• Half a lemon
• ½ tsp unrefined sea salt
• ¼ tsp Cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan combine the onion, vinegar and white wine or broth. Cook over low heat until the liquid has reduced down to half.
2. Use a spatula to scrape the onions and liquid into a blender, preferably a high speed one like a Vitamix. Add the butter and blend on low, slowly increasing the speed to medium. The heat from the onions will melt the butter.
3. Squeeze the lemon juice into the sauce, then add the salt and pepper, adjusting to your taste preferences
4. Separate the eggs and place the yolks in a glass measuring cup or something that’s easy to pour from. Whisk the yolks well and then slowly drizzle them into the onion and butter mixture as the blender is running on medium-low. Do not dump the eggs in, pour it slooowly or you’ll end up with buttery scrambled eggs!
5. Blend for about 1 minute until everything is smooth and thickened.
6. If the sauce is too thin for you, you can put it back into the saucepan over low heat and stir frequently until thickened. It will also get thicker as it cools.
7. Drizzle generously over fish and vegetables.

© 2024 Recipe from The Herbal Spoon