This fish with an easy lemon garlic sauce is a simple and healthy flavour-packed dish. With only six ingredients, it’s the perfect restaurant-style meal for busy weeknights! {Gluten-free, dairy-free & paleo}
This fish with easy lemon garlic sauce is a super simple yet classy meal that also happens to be incredibly versatile. It can be served up on busy weeknights or for special occasions and the preparation time is less than 25 minutes tops!
The healthy lemon sauce contains absolutely no butter, but is smooth, velvety and infused with flavours of lemon and garlic. With all that flavour, you’d never guess it only contains a few basic ingredients.
Serve up this easy fish recipe with rice or roasted potatoes and a side of asparagus or broccoli for a light and healthy meal!
Why we love this baked fish recipe
Easy: with only six simple ingredients, this recipe takes less than 20 minutes to prepare.
Healthy: this recipe is light yet filling and satisfying. It’s packed with lean protein, while being low in fat and calories!
Adaptable: you can easily adapt the amount of lemon and garlic used in the sauce to suit your taste preferences and can also sub in your favourite type of fish, so it makes the perfect dish for the whole family to enjoy!
What type of fish to use
You can use any type of white fish that you prefer for this recipe. I’ve tried it with sole, cod, tilapia and halibut and it was equally tasty each time.
I’ve also tried the lemon garlic sauce drizzled over baked and grilled salmon and it was also delicious. The sauce is pretty versatile, so feel free to switch it up and experiment with different types of fish!
How to Make the Fish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the fish fillets on the baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork. You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on the thickness of the fish that you use.
How to Make Healthy Lemon Sauce for fish
While the fish is baking, you can prepare the lemon garlic cashew cream sauce.
Place the soaked cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper into a powerful blender, or Ninja. Blend until mixture is smooth and creamy.
Pour the cashew sauce into a small saucepan over low heat and heat for 5-10 minutes or until heated through, stirring frequently.
Divide the sauce over the fish fillets. Garnish with fresh chopped dill, parsley or chives, if desired.
How to Store
You can store the fish and sauce covered in the fridge for up to a week.
How to reheat
The sauce may thicken up while in the fridge. To thin it out, you can add a bit of water and adjust the seasonings to taste when reheating.
To reheat, pour the sauce into a small sauce pan and heat over low heat until just heated through. Just be careful that you don’t bring it to a boil or overheat it as it may stick to the pan.
You can also reheat the fish and sauce in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.
Serving suggestions
This fish tastes especially good served along with asparagus or broccoli and rice. The sauce recipe does tend to make a little extra, so you can always drizzle some of the additional sauce over the rice and vegetables to soak up all of that flavour.
Alternatively, you can serve it with roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, or a nice refreshing salad!
Try it along with the following recipes:
- Oven Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan
- 5-Ingredient Roasted Garlic Potatoes
- Curly Sweet Potato Fries
- Greek Quinoa Salad
- Chickpea & Roasted Asparagus Couscous Salad
- Blueberry Walnut Salad with Lemon Dressing
- Greek Cucumber Noodle Salad
- Asparagus & Tomato Salad
- Roasted Asparagus Spring Salad
Recipe tips
- You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on the thickness of the fish that you use.
- Soak the cashews in boiling hot water for 15 minutes before blending to help them break down and create a nice smooth sauce. You can also soak them in water for up to 2-4 hours if you’d like to do the soaking in advance.
- Do not over heat the sauce on the stove or it will thicken up too much and stick to the bottom of the pan. Instead, remove it from the stove when the sauce has just heated through.
Looking for other delicious recipes?
Check these out:
- Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta
- Blackened Cod Recipe
- Healthy Cod Recipe
- Sweet Potato Quinoa
- Spicy Shrimp Tacos
- Best Stir Fry Sauce
- Oatmeal Balls
- Strawberry and Banana Smoothie
- Christmas Salad
- Kale Salad Recipe
- Chicken Burger Recipe
- Kids Breakfast Ideas
Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a rating and review!

Fish with Easy Lemon Garlic Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 six ounce white fish fillets i.e. cod, sole, halibut, haddock etc.
For 5-ingredient lemon garlic sauce
- 1/2 cup unsalted cashews soaked in water
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp water (or more if you prefer a thinner sauce)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/4 tsp salt and pepper (or more to taste)
Optional garnishes
- Chopped fresh parsley, dill or chives
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place fish fillets on baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
- Meanwhile, soak the cashews in boiling hot water for 15 minutes. Place the soaked cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper into a powerful blender, or Ninja. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Pour the cashew sauce into a small saucepan over low heat and heat for 5-10 minutes or until warmed through. Serve sauce warm drizzled over fish and garnish with parsley, dill or chives, if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted August 2018 but was updated with new photos and recipe tips in August 2020.
This post may contain affiliate links which means that I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only promote products that I love and feel will benefit my readers :)
Thanks For sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope they will like it.
My pleasure! So glad your family enjoyed it. Thanks for passing the recipe along!
Thanks For sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope they will like it.
So happy you and your family enjoyed the recipe! I appreciate you sharing it with your friends!
Hi! Super excited to try this but can I sub almonds in place of cashews? I get migraines from cashews! :(
Thanks in advance!
I haven’t tried making the cream sauce with almonds, so I’m not quite sure how it would turn out and if it would have the same creamy consistency. I’ve read that you can substitute sunflower seeds for cashews in a cream sauce, but I’m not sure how it would taste with the fish. You could always give it a shot and see how it goes. Keep me posted if you decide to try it!
Try pine nuts! I recently swapped those for cashews in a dressing and it worked amazing.
Ooh I’ll have to try that sometime! I bet those would make a great swap for cashews :)
Just tried this one tonight – another hit! I doubled the recipe, because I like lots of ‘sauce’ on everything. But I didn’t need to. I have a lot left over after feeding a family of 4. So, I thickened it by heating it a bit longer, and now we’re letting it cool to use as a dip for veggies for lunches tomorrow! So good.
That’s awesome Robin — so glad you guys enjoyed the recipe! You definitely can’t go wrong with extra sauce. This stuff is so versatile. Love the idea of using it as a dip for veggies tomorrow! Thanks so much for sharing your feedback on the recipe :)