Béarnaise sauce, a rich and creamy delight, is a classic French sauce often served with steak. This article will guide you through making a keto-friendly version of this decadent sauce, perfect for pairing with grilled meats, vegetables, and more.
What is Béarnaise Sauce?
Béarnaise is a rich and creamy yellow French sauce made from a reduction of vinegar and wine mixed with shallots and tarragon, thickened with egg yolks and butter. It is often served with steak at fine dining restaurants and high-end steakhouses.
Béarnaise vs. Hollandaise
Many may already be familiar with Hollandaise, which is often served with poached eggs. Hollandaise is one of the 5 French mother sauces, the others being Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise, and Tomato. These five sauces were identified by Marie-Antoine Carême in the 19th century as the building blocks for all other sauces. Hollandaise is made from clarified butter, egg yolks and an acid (such as lemon or white wine). As you can see, a béarnaise sauce is simply a variation of that, only additional herbs and shallots for more flavor. The base (or mother sauce) of Béarnaise is Hollandaise, but has the addition of tarragon, shallot and peppercorns.
Both sauces have an egg yolk and butter base with white wine, but Hollandaise Sauce, also known as French Mother Sauce, uses lemon juice as the acid, where Béarnaise Sauce uses white wine vinegar instead.
Is Béarnaise Sauce Keto-Friendly?
Béarnaise sauce is most definitely keto friendly, due to it’s high healthy fat content and very low carbs. In fact, it’s one of my favorite ways to add more healthy fats to my meals that happen to be lacking in fat.
Read also: Low-Carb Cranberry Sauce
Keto Béarnaise Sauce Recipes
Here are a few ways to make this delicious sauce:
Method 1: Immersion Blender Method
This method utilizes an immersion blender for a quick and easy sauce.
Ingredients:
- Vinegar
- Wine
- Tarragon
- Salt
- Egg yolks
- Butter
Instructions:
- Add the vinegar, wine and tarragon to a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Allow to reduce until you are left with about 2 tbsp of liquid. It should take around 15 minutes.
- Pour the reduced vinegar into a glass measuring cup (tight enough to just fit an immersion blender head). Add the salt and egg yolks. Set aside.
- Add the butter to a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. Once fully melted, swirl around to let any foam subside.
- Place the immersion blender into the bottom of the measuring cup and blend. As you continue to blend slowly pour in the butter until you have achieved a thick, creamy sauce. This should be a fairly quick process (less than a minute).
- Serve immediately with meat and veggies.
Method 2: Simplified Immersion Blender Method
This recipe combines elements from both Hollandaise and Béarnaise sauces.
Ingredients:
- White wine
- White wine vinegar
- Lemon juice
- Shallots
- Salt
- Pepper
- Tarragon leaves
- Egg yolks
- Butter
Instructions:
- Add the white wine, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, shallots, salt, pepper, and half of the tarragon leaves, in a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat for a few minutes, until the mixture is reduced to just under 1/4 cup.
- Add the mixture to an immersion blender and allow to cool for a few minutes. Add the egg yolks and mix for a few seconds.
- Add the butter in a heatproof cup with a pour spout and heat up in the microwave (or heat directly in another saucepan).
- Once the butter is hot, the milk solids will sink to the bottom, discard those and keep the clarified butter to use in the sauce. You should end up with just over 3/4 cup.
- Then VERY SLOWLY stream in the hot butter while mixing with the immersion blender stick.
- Continue mixing, gently pulling up and down until the sauce is emulsified and perfectly thickened.
- Add the remaining tarragon and pulse for 2 seconds. If the sauce is too thick, mix in a tiny bit of hot water.
- Serve immediately (the sauce will thicken as it cools) over the protein or veggies of your choice. Store leftovers in an airtight jar in the fridge for a few days. When you're ready to use it again, reheat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, just to take the chill out and loosen it up some.
Method 3: Traditional Béarnaise Sauce
This method uses a vinegar reduction for a more traditional flavor.
Ingredients:
- White wine vinegar
- Chopped shallot
- Peppercorns
- Tarragon
- Egg yolks
- Ghee (or clarified butter)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Add the white wine vinegar, chopped shallot, peppercorns and 2 Tbls (or two sprigs) of the tarragon into a small saucepan
- Gently boil until liquid has reduced down to about 2 Tbls. Let cool and then strain through a mesh strainer
- Melt ghee in a small saucepan and let cool slightly (should still be warm)
- Add the reduced and strained vinegar liquid to the blender along with the egg yolks, turn blender on low
- Remove the middle stopper from the lid in the blender and slowly drizzle in the melted ghee until sauce gets thick and creamy. Turn blender off and stir in remaining chopped tarragon.
- If your sauce does not get creamy enough for your liking, you can still save it! All you have to do is gently boil water in a small saucepan and place a bowl over the top. Pour the sauce into the bowl and whisk vigorously, the gentle heat will help thicken up the sauce perfectly.
Method 4: Tempering Eggs
This method focuses on the importance of tempering eggs to prevent curdling.
Read also: Dr Pepper BBQ Sauce Tips
Ingredients:
- Salted butter
- Egg yolk
- White wine vinegar
- Shallot
- Bay leaf
- Tarragon
- Lemon juice
Instructions:
- In a saucepan, add vinegar, minced shallot, bay leaf, and sprig of tarragon. Set the burner on low and stir until reduced by half. Remove from heat and cool.
- In a microwave-safe measuring cup, cut butter in half and add to cup. Microwave for 30 seconds, then additional 15 seconds at a time, until butter is melted.
- In a large mixing bowl, add egg yolk, and the juice of ½ lemon. Strain your vinegar from the saucepan into the egg yolk (discarding the tarragon, bay leaf and shallots).
- Slowly pour the melted butter into the egg yolk/vinegar mixture and whisk till thickened.
- Add chopped tarragon leaves and fresh ground pepper. Keep warm till served.
Tips for Making the Best Keto Béarnaise Sauce
- Use fresh ingredients: Fresh tarragon and shallots will significantly enhance the flavor of your sauce.
- Control the heat: Be careful not to overheat the butter or the egg yolks, as this can cause the sauce to break or curdle.
- Clarified butter: In a traditional béarnaise (or Hollandaise) sauce you begin by clarifying your butter, which separates the milk solids from the butter fat. While this is the preferred method, in order to save a few steps, I microwave the butter but dispense with the separation part. It doesn’t change the texture much and takes much less time to prepare.
- Tempering the eggs: The only part of this sauce where you’ll need to be patient is when tempering your eggs. After you’ve mixed your eggs with your reduced vinegar, you’ll want to slowly whisk your melted butter into the egg mixture. By pouring very slowly, this prevents your yolks from cooking, allowing them to slowly come up to temperature without curdling. If in doubt, the slower the better.
- Save a broken sauce: If your sauce does not get creamy enough for your liking, you can still save it! All you have to do is gently boil water in a small saucepan and place a bowl over the top. Pour the sauce into the bowl and whisk vigorously, the gentle heat will help thicken up the sauce perfectly. It will only take 30 seconds to a minute
- Serve immediately: Once you have your prepared sauce, you’re ready to drizzle it over your favorite foods. Spoon it over a fire grilled steak, omelette, or even use it like a mayonnaise. Once it cools it will thicken and not be sauce-like, and it’s really not good re-warmed. So just be mindful that the sauce is best served fresh and used all at once.
Serving Suggestions
True enough, the most traditional way of serving Béarnaise Sauce is with a mouth-watering, juicy filet mignon. This recipe doesn’t have to only pair with meats you cook on the grill. It could also work great for a breakfast scramble, sandwich or casserole.
Here are a few keto-friendly serving suggestions:
- Grilled Meats: Pair with steak, chicken, or pork. We were fortunate enough to be sent a grill from Traeger Grills so we had to do a grill recipe! Meats can be easy so we thought making a Bernaise Recipe to pair alongside your grilled meat and veggies would be a great way to get the grilling recipes rolling! The grill itself is a monster! You could cook enough meat and veggies on this bad boy to feed a family of 10, plus leftovers. Our favorite part about is the use of pellets for even, stable heating.
- Salt and pepper both sides of the steak and allow to sit for 3 minutes. Once the grill is preheated, place the steak on the grill and close the grill. Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side, depending on your preferred doneness.
- Vegetables: Drizzle over asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms, or any of your favorite grilled or pan-roasted veggies. Grilled veggies will never be the same! This sauce is perfect with asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms or any of you favorite grilled or pan roasted veggies. A simplified and keto-friendly French béarnaise sauce over fresh steamed asparagus. A simplified, but still delicious, classic French béarnaise sauce over fresh green asparagus.
- Toss the veggies in salt, pepper and olive oil and place in a small 6 inch skillet.
- Prepare asparagus by cutting the woody/tough part of the stalks off. See note below for tip. In a large sauce pan, add 1 cup of water over high heat till boilling. Add asparagus to boiling water, cover, and steam for 5-6 minutes until soft but still bright green. Squeeze ½ lemon juice over asparagus. A easy trick to prep your asparagus is to bend the asparagus till it breaks. The point at which is breaks is the tough/woody part of the asparagus.
- Eggs: Top a breakfast scramble or omelet. To really add extra decadence add some to the top of this Keto Smoked Salmon Crustless Quiche.
- Seafood: Serve with crab or lobster.
Storage Instructions
You can make it in bulk (which we highly recommend) and store in the fridge up to 1 week to serve with weekly dinners. Store leftovers in an airtight jar in the fridge for a few days. When you're ready to use it again, reheat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, just to take the chill out and loosen it up some.
Read also: Tangy and Spicy Keto Sauce