Enjoy delicate white fish any time, without drowning it in butter, with the most delicious healthy lemon sauce for fish. It’s incredibly flavorful yet only requires six ingredients, so it’s the perfect restaurant-style meal for busy weeknights!
{Gluten-free, dairy-free & paleo)
Healthy Lemon Sauce for Fish – No Butter
The mild flavor of white fish is the perfect blank canvas for with those lemony butter sauces you get at restaurants, but they tend to be packed with tons of calories and fat from all that melted butter.
This healthy lemon sauce contains absolutely no butter, but is smooth, velvety and infused with flavors of lemon and garlic. With all that flavor, you’d never guess it only contains a few basic ingredients. We love this simple sauce for fish and hope you enjoy it too!
If you’re looking for more white fish recipes, you’ll also want to try this Parmesan Crusted Cod and Blackened Cod!
Before You Make This Healthy Sauce for Fish
- This is a dairy-free sauce made with cashews for creaminess. You’ll need to soak the cashews in boiling hot water for 15 minutes or soak them in water for up to 2-4 hours ahead of time.
- 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.
- You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on the thickness of the fish that you use.
Ingredient Notes
For the Fish:
- White fish: Choose your favorite white fish, like cod, sole, halibut, haddock, etc. A mild-tasting fish is best for the bright lemony sauce.
For 5-Ingredient Lemon Garlic Sauce
- Soaked unsalted cashews: These will blend into a creamy sauce without requiring any butter!
- Water or chicken broth
- Fresh lemon juice (and lemon zest, optional)
- Fresh garlic
- Salt and black pepper
Optional Garnishes
- Chopped fresh parsley, dill or chives
Step-by-Step Instructions
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. Pat them dry with paper towels to remove excess moisture. 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 emulsified 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.
Scroll to the recipe card below for the full printable recipe!
Storage & Reheating Guidelines
Refrigerator: You can store the fish and sauce covered in the fridge for up to a week. 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, being careful that you don’t overcook it.
Can you make lemon fish sauce without butter?
Although it’s traditional to serve a creamy lemon butter sauce with fish, you don’t have to use butter to get that creamy consistency! This healthy lemon sauce for fish uses soaked cashews for a lusciously creamy sauce without any butter at all. Once you try it once, you’ll want to make this easy fish recipe all the time!
Serving Suggestions
This sauce has a glossy, butteriness that makes it ideal for spooning over any type of fish or seafood. We usually serve it over white fish (like cod, tilapia, or halibut), or use a heartier protein, like salmon.
Consider it any time you’re serving a sweeter type of seafood, like scallops, shrimp, crab, or even lobster. So good!
The lemon garlic flavor really works with green veggies, like asparagus, green beans, or broccoli, and some steamed rice. The sauce recipe does tend to make a little extra, so you can always drizzle some over the rice and vegetables to soak up all of that flavor.
Instead of rice, feel free to make healthy roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, your favorite pasta, or a refreshing asparagus tomato salad.
Recipe Variations
- Adjust the seasonings: Feel free to add your favorite spices or fresh herbs for extra flavor. Chives or green onions would taste amazing, or you can always add red pepper flakes for a kick of heat.
- Change up the liquid: Instead of water, use chicken stock or vegetable stock. You can even replace some of the water with white wine. A lemony white wine sauce tastes amazing over clams or white fish!
More Healthy Fish Recipes
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White Fish with Healthy Lemon Sauce {No Butter}
Video
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 tablespoons water (or more if you prefer a thinner sauce)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon 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 and season with salt and pepper. 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.
Notes
- You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on the thickness of the fish 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 overheat the sauce on the stove otherwise 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.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted August 2018 but was updated with new photos and recipe tips in November 2023. The formatting and text were updated again in January 2026.
Any seasoning needed while baking the fish fillets?
I usually just season the fish fillets with some salt and pepper, but feel free to add any other desired seasonings! :)
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 :)