Homemade Tartar Sauce Recipe

Name: Homemade Tartar Sauce Recipe
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped; 3 garlic cloves; 1 cup Homemade Dill Pickles (or organic dill pickles); 1 cup Paleo mayo or 1 cup Coconut Oil Mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon fresh dill; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 1 teaspoon maple sugar; ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

February 3, 2022 by Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CN

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There are a lot of reasons to love tartar sauce. If you’re a a big fan of seafood, it may already be one of your favorite condiments, but have you ever had homemade tartar sauce? With the perfect balance of creamy, salty, tangy and sweet, this tartar sauce recipe can be used on much more than a piece of fried fish.

Tartar sauce is a condiment or dip that starts out with a base of mayonnaise or aioli and then has other ingredients added to it. Tartar sauce recipes can vary slightly, but most will add relish, onion, herbs and lemon juice.

Like other condiments, tartar sauce is only as good or as healthy as its ingredients, which pretty much always include mayonnaise and sweet relish or pickles. As you may already know, a lot of mayonnaise and pickle brands include unwanted preservatives, flavorings and coloring. Plus, sweet relish or pickles are usually loaded with refined sugar.

This recipe for tartar sauce includes homemade mayonnaise and probiotic-rich homemade dill pickles, which really takes the taste of this sauce to another level. It’s also a Paleo-friendly recipe. Before you keep reading, don’t worry, how to make tartar sauce is not hard, and it’s so worth the effort because homemade tartar sauce always has that freshness and flavor that you just can’t get in any pre-made version.

What Is Tartar Sauce?

Since the 19th century, tartar sauce has been found in various cookbooks. It’s name is said to come from the French name for this condiment: “sauce tartare.”

Tartar (sometimes misspelled as “tarter”) sauce is most commonly paired with seafood, but it really goes great with a lot more than fish sticks or a fish sandwich.

Tartar sauce recipe ingredients - Dr. Axe

Tartar Sauce Dishes

Looking for more delicious tartar sauce combinations? Try using tartar sauce with:

Baked fish
Broiled fish
Fish tacos
Burgers of all kinds — from grass-fed beef to chicken to veggie
Sandwiches
Sweet potato fries
Baked potatoes
Salads (as a dressing)
Vegetable chips such as kale chips or zucchini chips
Baked vegetable fries

How to Make Tartar Sauce

Why buy tartar sauce from the grocery store when this recipe barely takes any time out of your day? This easy tartar sauce can be made in only five minutes. So how do you make tartar sauce? Well, once you have all of your ingredients ready to go, you simply toss them into a blender or food processor and mix them up.

To prep for this tartar sauce recipe, you’ll want to have your pickles and onions chopped up.

Start putting all of your ingredients into the blender. You can start by putting the solid ingredients like the onions and pickles in first. Now add the garlic cloves.

Next up is the key base ingredient: your homemade coconut oil mayonnaise or a high-quality paleo mayonnaise if you’re pressed for time.

Add the rest of the ingredients, including the fresh dill, lemon juice, maple sugar and freshly ground black pepper. All of your tartar sauce ingredients are now in the blender or food processor. Put it on high until everything is well-combined.

Now, serve and enjoy!

Other Flavorful Sauces