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With the abundance of basil during the summer months, this recipe for an amazing Basil Sauce with Garlic & Lemon will surely become handy. It contains only 4 ingredients and it takes only a couple of minutes to put together. You can dunk bread in it, you can glaze your chicken, fish or steak with it, or you could even use it as a salad dressing.
If you have even more basil, you may want to check out these readers’ favorite recipes with basil: Lemon Basil Pesto, Burrata Pasta with Lemon Basil Pesto, Instant Pot Bean Soup with Lemon and Pesto or Baked Eggs with Tomatoes and Pesto.
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Basil Sauce with Garlic & Lemon – Perfect Summer Condiment
Every year after Mother’s Day we have a planting weekend at my house. We do veggies, herbs, and flowers, and we feel like the summer has officially started (even though it technically hasn’t). But basil is one of the first things that needs to be planted. I absolutely adore it and can’t imagine not having plenty of it during summer.
Because I have so much basil I tend to come up with different ways to use it. This basil sauce was inspired by one of my favorite pizzerias on Long Island, which serves their signature basil sauce with fresh crusty bread as an appetizer.
This basil sauce is different than pesto, as it’s much lighter in texture. It doesn’t contain any cheese or nuts, so it has more like a dressing type of consistency.
Ingredients Needed to Make Garlic Basil Sauce
As mentioned above, this is a super easy recipe. You’ll only need a few ingredients. So without further adieu, here they are:
- Fresh Basil;
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil;
- Fresh Garlic;
- Lemon Juice (you can use as much or as little as you like – this is a personal preference – start with a little bit and add more if you want more zing);
- Salt & Pepper, to taste.
How to Make Basil Sauce
I don’t think that making this basil sauce will take more than 5 minutes. You basically need to put all the ingredients into a blender and blend it to your liking consistency (tasting few times for seasoning). That’s it! You’re done. Dunk bread in it and be speechless.
What to Serve with Basil Sauce
It’s one of these recipes that you want to have handy all summer long as a perfect condiment because it goes great with anything. You name it: salads, pasta, fish, chicken, burger, lamb chops, etc… The possibilities are endless.
Here are a couple of my suggestions:
- As a dressing to a green salad or tomato salad;
- Use it for pasta salad;
- Top it on some Chicken Legs;
- Top it on your veggie burger;
- With steak or chicken kebabs.
How to Store Basil Sauce
You can store this basil sauce in a fridge for up to 5 days.
But if you have too much, you can also freeze it. I suggest using the ice cubes trays. Freeze the sauce and then remove from the tray and place in a ziplock back. The sauce will be good in a freezer for up to 3 months (now we’re talking about stretching the summer).
Basil Sauce with Garlic & Lemon
Ingredients
- 2 cups Fresh Basil Leaves
- 1/2 cup Olive Oil Extra Virgin
- 2 cloves Garlic peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon Lemon juice or more to taste, or skip
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt or more to taste
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend to your liking consistency. Taste for seasoning. Serve with bread or as a condiment to meat, fish, salads or pasta.
Nutrition
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Wow this looks amazing and sounds just divine on bread, making this ASAP!
Edyta, this sauce is so delicious! I love how it only uses a few ingredients and is so easy to make. Love love basil!
This is the perfect way to use up the basil from my garden! I can’t wait to try this delicious looking sauce!
My basil plant in my garden is going crazy so I really needed this recipe right now!
I used to use this sauce while working in a Italian restaurant. It is awesome! Simple but tasty, and it has such a wide palette of use. Perfect!
This sauce is amazing! Such beautiful flavor. We added some Serrano pepper for a kick and it tastes devine!
I had to halve the amount of basil as I was just using the leftovers from another dish. The sauce wasn’t as green, but the flavours pack a punch! Had it on pan fried chicken and sourdough bread. It was so good!
Too much olive oil for the the basil, all you taste at the end is the oil.
Good idea, bad recipe
Easy to make and great use of plentiful garden basil.
Go easy on the seasonings and if a little oo sharp, you can always add 1/a tsp sugar.
I am going to dribble it around some stuffed baked tomatoes, when I serve them – contrast of tomatoes with beautiful green coloured sause will look gorgeous, I think