Simple Seasonal

Healthy Seasonal Recipes Inspired by Your Local Farm and CSA

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Recipes
  • How-To
  • Farm to Table
  • Playing With Food
  • Contact

Light Hollandaise Sauce

April 1, 2015 By Rachel 20 Comments

Share69
Pin1.1K
Tweet
Yum72
Share
Flip
1.2K Shares

Light Hollandaise Sauce – If you’re anything like me, you LOVE hollandaise sauce, but you DON’T love all the calories and saturated fat. This recipe gives you a better option. It’s lightened up, and best of all, it’s all-natural!

Light Hollandaise Sauce - If you're anything like me, you LOVE hollandaise sauce, but you DON'T love all the calories and saturated fat. This recipe gives you a better option. It's lightened up, and best of all, it's all-natural! | simpleseasonal.com

I’ve had a long-time love for hollandaise sauce with its creamy richness and pop of lemon.

It’s no wonder that it’s so delicious, as it’s traditionally made with 3-4 egg yolks and nearly a pound of butter! Such a sauce doesn’t belong on this blog, with its aim to provide seasonal, healthy (or at least mostly healthy) recipes.

The “no hollandaise” thing is especially sad in the spring, when I start craving Eggs Benedict and asparagus drowned in Hollandaise goodness!

I recently decided to get creative and lighten up my hollandaise sauce, so that I can enjoy it from time-to-time without it being like eating a stick of butter. This was challenging, as the butter and the egg yolks hold each other together, forming the body of the sauce, not to mention the creamy richness.

In my recipe I ended up replacing almost all of the butter with olive oil, sour cream, and water. The end result was an all-natural sauce that’s still rich and creamy, but much lower in saturated fat and calories!

Light Hollandaise Sauce

Serves: 4

Prep Time: 5 minutes                      Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 egg yolks from free-range eggs
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1/8 tsp paprika
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 pinches of black pepper
  • 1/4 C water
  • 1/4 C sour cream
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp lemon zest
  • 1/4 C fresh chives

Directions

1. In an uncoated pan, melt 1 Tbsp of butter while continuously beating together with 2 tsp of olive oil and two egg yolks. You’ll end up with a thick, yellow sauce. To do this I borrowed a tiny whisk from my son’s kitchen toy set and it work perfectly. I’m pretty sure they sell them at kitchen supply stores for adult use too…

preparing light hollandaise sauce

2. Beat in your lemon juice, lemon zest, paprika, salt, and pepper.

preparing light hollandaise sauce

3. Add 1/4 cup of water to the pan and bring to a gentle simmer while continuously beating. Once you have reached a simmer, remove your sauce from the heat.

preparing light hollandaise sauce

4. Once the sauce has stopped simmering, whisk 1/4 C sour cream into your mixture until evenly combined and there are no lumps.

adding sour cream to light hollandaise sauce

5. Garnish your Light Hollandaise Sauce with chives and you’re ready to serve.

Light Hollandaise Sauce - If you're anything like me, you LOVE hollandaise sauce, but you DON'T love all the calories and saturated fat. This recipe gives you a better option. It's lightened up, and best of all, it's all-natural! | simpleseasonal.com

Serving Suggestions:

  1. This is delicious on my Spinach Potato Cakes with Parmesan.
  2. Serve on eggs. This is most delicious on poached and sunny-side up.
  3. Serve on top of cod fish cooked in a 350º oven with steamed broccoli.
  4. Sauté one bunch of asparagus with 1 tsp olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste, and top with hollandaise.

Light Hollandaise Sauce

Light Hollandaise Sauce
 
Print
Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
5 mins
Total time
10 mins
 
If you're anything like me, you LOVE hollandaise sauce, but you DON'T love all the calories and saturated fat. This recipe gives you a better option. It's lightened up, and best of all, it's all-natural!
Author: Rachel Hanawalt
Recipe type: Sauces
Cuisine: French
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 egg yolks from free-range eggs
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • ⅛ tsp paprika
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 2 pinches of black pepper
  • ¼ C water
  • ¼ C sour cream
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • ¼ tsp lemon zest
  • ¼ C fresh chives
Instructions
  1. In an uncoated pan, melt 1 Tbsp of butter while continuously beating together with 2 tsp of olive oil and two egg yolks. You'll end up with a thick, yellow sauce. To do this I borrowed a tiny whisk from my son's kitchen toy set and it work perfectly. I'm pretty sure they sell them at kitchen supply stores for adult use too...
  2. Beat in your lemon juice, lemon zest, paprika, salt, and pepper.
  3. Add ¼ cup of water to the pan and bring to a gentle simmer while continuously beating. Once you have reached a simmer, remove your sauce from the heat.
  4. Once the sauce has stopped simmering, whisk ¼ C sour cream into your mixture until evenly combined and there are no lumps.
  5. Garnish your Light Hollandaise Sauce with chives and you're ready to serve.
3.5.3251

Nutrition Facts
4 servings per container
Serving size

Amount per serving
Calories 105
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 10.4g 13%
Saturated Fat 4.8g 24%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 118.8mg 40%
Sodium 106.3mg 5%
Total Carbohydrate 1.4g 1%
Dietary Fiber 0.1g 1%
Total Sugars 0.2g
Includes g Added Sugars 0%
Protein 1.9g

Calcium 3mg 1%
Iron 1.6mg 9%
Not a significant source of vitamin D, or potassium.

The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

More homemade sauce recipes to try…

Homemade Duck Sauce

Homemade Duck Sauce

Homemade Cajun Remoulade Sauce

Homemade Cajun Remoulade Sauce

Homemade Tartar Sauce

Homemade Tartar Sauce

light hollandaise sauce

Get Your Next Meal In Your Inbox!

Enter your email address to get the latest recipes and relevant seasonal content on the blog!

I agree to have my personal information transfered to AWeber ( more information )

I will never give away, trade, or sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Share69
Pin1.1K
Tweet
Yum72
Share
Flip
1.2K Shares

Filed Under: Dressings and Sauces, Easter, Eggs, Gluten-Free, Healthy, Lemon, Mother’s Day, Recipes, Spring, Vegetarian Tagged With: Easter, Hollandaise, Light, Reduced-Fat, Sauce, Spring

« Rutabaga and Carrot Mash
Spring Couscous and Roasted Chicken Legs »

Comments

  1. J @ A Hot Southern Mess says

    July 23, 2015 at 8:14 am

    Yum! I love hollandaise sauce so I will have to try your lightened up version! Thanks for sharing dear!

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      July 23, 2015 at 4:15 pm

      Thanks! With trying to eat healthier, I’ve found that some things are just too good to completely give up!

      Reply
  2. Carol says

    January 26, 2017 at 11:17 am

    This is awesome! Sure don’t feel deprived with this sauce!!!

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      January 29, 2017 at 11:41 pm

      Thanks Carol! I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe!

      Reply
  3. Kira says

    March 10, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    Hi! I was wondering how well this sauce saves and re-heats? Any tips?

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      March 17, 2017 at 10:33 pm

      Honestly… hollandaise isn’t the best reheating sauce. Have you ever had hollandaise off of a buffet? It gets kind of weird. If you need to make it advance because of a time crunch I recommend reheating it slowly while constantly stirring. If it’s too think add a little water, one teaspoon at a time, until you reach the right consistency.

      Reply
  4. Lauren says

    March 25, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    This is good, but it’s VERY lemony. I’ll probably half the juice next time. I did’t use zest either. Just a warning to those who don’t want a strong lemon flavor on their eggs. It would however be excellent with fish!

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      May 11, 2017 at 10:24 am

      I’m sorry to hear that your hollandaise turned out undesirably lemony. I do like a hollandaise sauce in which some lemon shines through, but when I’ve made this in the past I wouldn’t characterize it as being “strong,” so I’m guessing we both had some variance in our lemons. As it is with cooking with fresh ingredients, flavors can change based on the freshness and time of year the produce was harvested. Thanks for the heads up for other readers!

      Reply
  5. Katy says

    October 16, 2017 at 2:57 pm

    Just want to thank you for this recipe! I left out the lemon zest and used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it was delicious. I love hollandaise so it was really nice to find a tasty light version

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      October 20, 2017 at 11:54 am

      Thanks for letting me know that this recipe work out for you. I LOVE hollandaise too!

      Reply
  6. Granville J Rice III says

    July 17, 2019 at 1:15 pm

    I usually make Hollandaise in the blender using warm butter. It takes about 30 seconds. I’m wondering if you think it would work to warm the oil butter mixture, pouring it into the yolks like pouring in the warm butter. I’m too lazy to spend the time to double boiler, whisk,whisk,whisk.

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      August 19, 2019 at 5:22 pm

      The blender method will likely work. Just be sure that you get the oil-butter mixture good and hot. Blend the yolks into the hot butter-oil until fully emulsified and then add in the sour cream last, otherwise the eggs won’t cook.

      Reply
  7. Stephen says

    March 7, 2020 at 9:24 am

    I have coronary artery disease and love hollandaise sauce.
    I make ours with egg beaters, a ‘buttery spread, lemon juice and white pepper.
    The egg beaters has no sat fat and no cholesterol.
    The buttery spread (Benecol) has 1g sat fat and no cholesterol.
    Ratios:
    Buttery spread to egg beaters is one to one.
    Lemon juice to egg beaters is two tbsps to one cup.
    Pinch of white pepper
    Pinch of salt (if you need it)
    Make only in a blender.
    Blend everything except buttery spread at high speed in blender.
    Heat buttery spread until really hot and boiling, stirring constantly, not allowing it to brown.
    Pour the boiling spread into the blender slowly while the blender is running on high.

    Add some fat free half and half and blend a little more for Mousseline Sauce.

    You’ll be surprised how good it is when considering the little fat it contains.

    Reply
  8. Chris says

    March 15, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    When I put the egg yolks and they cooked and curdled. Not happy.

    Reply
    • Rachel says

      March 17, 2020 at 11:58 am

      Likely your pan was too hot and you weren’t whisking vigorously enough. I believe you will encounter this issue with any hollandaise sauce recipe. I encourage you to try hollandaise sauce again in the future, whether it’s my recipe or another. It’s a challenging recipe, but delicious and worth the effort!

      Reply
  9. Mary says

    May 13, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    Great light hollandaise recipe – tastes as good as normal hollandaise and without the english muffin my eggs Benedict with this sauce was 400 calories / 30g fat/ 30g protein/ 9g carbs. Love it! Dont have to give up my favorite brunch item!

    Reply
  10. Gayle says

    June 13, 2020 at 10:26 am

    So easy to make and delicious! I just got a poached egg maker for the Instant Pot so was very excited to make eggs Benedict.

    Reply
  11. Jill Tino says

    December 27, 2020 at 1:34 pm

    This was delicious. We just had eggs benedict with it and it was perfect.

    Reply
  12. Patti says

    April 10, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    My first time making this sauce and it was delicious! I made sure to cook over low heat so the yolks did not scramble. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Light Hollandaise Sauce from Simple Seasonal - Yum Goggle says:
    April 2, 2015 at 12:19 pm

    […] GET THE RECIPE […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi, I'm Rachel! Welcome to Simple Seasonal, a resource for simple, healthful, and delicious recipes that help you make the most of seasonal produce from your local farmer's market, CSA, or home garden. Simple Seasonal is committed to a whole foods diet. With an occasional cookie... ;)


Recipes in Your Inbox!

Sign up to get free updates!

Search

Connect With Us

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Connect With Us!

If you're active on social media, you'll find Simple Seasonal there as well. Feel free to connect, share, and say hello!

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Discover Summer Recipes

corn fritters with chives on a plate
Garlic Scape Aioli
ranch chicken pita pockets
Hawaiian Pork Roll Sandwiches
Fried Okra Stuffed with Pepper Jack Cheese
Southern Collard Greens

Discover Summer Recipes

Kohlrabi and Corn Salad
One-Skillet Shrimp and Okra
Tomato Basil Ricotta Toast
Lebanese Garlic Sauce
One-Pot Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice
Maple Peach Streusel Ice Cream Sundaes

Copyright © 2023 · Simple Seasonal · Privacy Policy · ↑ Back to top

Privacy Policy