Easy, Healthy Tartar Sauce for Every Fish—Using Homemade Yogurt!

I love to eat fish. It’s healthy, light and delicious. It’s also usually easy and quick. There’s nothing like a good tartar sauce though. Something about that tangy, rich sauce goes so well with just about any fish and counteracts any “fishy” taste. I recently realized that the store-bought tartar sauce I was using had mayonnaise in it. And that mayonnaise - like all store-bought mayonnaise that I’ve found - is made from canola oil.

Since learning about how canola, corn and soy oils are heavily processed and deodorized industrial oils that the body can’t recognize and that cause disease, I have avoided them whenever possible. It’s not usually a big problem, because I’m not a fan of mayo in the first place. I’ve never liked it as a condiment, and will only occasionally eat it in something like salmon or tuna salad sandwiches. And tartar sauce. So for awhile I tried eating fish with other things. Blackened or with lemon. With lemon cheese sauce.

But it’s not the same. I craved tartar sauce. So I decided to make my own. I could make my own mayonnaise, but it’s a lot of trouble just for a small batch of tartar sauce, so I thought about what I might substitute for mayo and looked at recipes. I found that full fat yogurt or sour cream works really well, and now I just mix up a batch every time I make fish. It’s a really great sauce, adds a lot of flavor, and has fresh, healthy ingredients that I can feel good about. And I can use yogurt I’ve made in VitaClay! So without further ado….

Ingredients:

• ½ cup yogurt or sour cream
• 1 T lemon juice (fresh squeezed is amazing)
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 2 T finely chopped red onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
•  Dash of turmeric (because I put it in everything!)
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl
2. The longer this mixture sits, the better it tastes. So if you want to make it before you start prepping the fish and just stick it in the fridge until everything’s ready, it’ll have a lot of flavor.
3. Top your favorite fish, or just eat it with a spoon. It’s delicious. Might also make a great dip.