Meatless Friday: A Simple Sauce for Any Fish

Barb Szyszkiewicz shares an easy sauce to dress up your favorite variety of baked fish. Download our printable recipe card!

This recipe has been an ideal solution to a meal-planning problem. I'm a fan of almost any kind of fish, but my husband only wants to eat salmon. After a while, I was ready for something different! It finally occurred to me to look for a way to serve both of us the fish we enjoy without preparing completely separate dinners: Use the same sauce on different fish. 

This does require the use of separate pans if one type of fish fillet is significantly thicker than another; since we tried this sauce on salmon (for him) and flounder (for me) I baked the fish in separate pans and started the salmon earlier, as it needed twice the baking time.

A Simple Sauce for Any Fish

Makes enough sauce to flavor 4 fish fillets

Ingredients

4 fish fillets (any kind you like)
1 TBSP olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 TBSP butter, melted
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 TBSP chopped fresh dill
Sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Lemon slices (from the other half of the lemon)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Place fish fillets in prepared pan and drizzle olive oil over the top. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Combine melted butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, and dill. Spoon over top of fish fillets. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper if desired.
Add slices of lemon to baking pan.
Bake for the recommended time for the type of fish you're using: thick fillets such as salmon take about 20 minutes; thinner ones (flounder, tilapia) are done in 10 to 12 minutes.