It’s an essential sauce in French and Italian cuisine, used in lasagne, cannelloni, casseroles, gratins, and as a base recipe for many other sauces. White sauce is easy to make in one pot in about 10 minutes. Most importantly, it will make your vegetable or vegetarian lasagna, cannelloni, casseroles, and gratin recipes one hundred percent more delicious. Made with flour, butter, and milk, white sauce, known as béchamel in Europe, is a pillar of French cuisine. Famous French chef August Escoffier classified it as one of the “mother sauces” (i.e., base sauces from which you can derive other sauces or daughter sauces). You probably know white sauce from Italian food, though, as it is widely used in lasagna and many other recipes. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to make a creamy, delicious, and versatile béchamel in about 10 minutes in one pot. If you want to consume less dairy, butter, and saturated fat, try our olive oil-based, vegan white sauce.
1. Gather the ingredients
You’ll need all-purpose flour, milk, butter, salt, black pepper, and grated nutmeg.
2. Mix butter and flour
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, sift in the flour, and whisk or stir with a silicone spatula until combined. Return to the heat and cook the butter-flour mixture for 2 minutes while stirring. Tip: This is called white roux. Don’t allow the mixture to overcook and brown. It should remain white or pale yellow.
3. Add milk
Pour in the milk slowly, while stirring, and cook until the sauce is smooth and creamy – about 5 minutes. When you reach your desired consistency, remove the pan from the heat and season with salt, black pepper, and a grating of nutmeg. Tip: The temperature of the milk is not important. It can be hot, cold, or at room temperature. To speed things up, you can cool down the sauce in a cold bain-marie. Butter: You can substitute vegan butter for regular butter. To use olive oil, please refer to our vegan white sauce recipe. All-purpose flour: To make white sauce gluten-free, you can use a GF all-purpose flour like King Arthur’s or Bob’s Red Mill. Nutmeg: You can keep it out if you don’t have it. To change consistency, adjust the ratio of flour to liquids.
Thick white sauce: add 2 more tablespoons of flour, and keep butter and milk constant. Medium or basic white sauce: 4 tbsp flour – 4 tbsp butter – 2 cups milk. Thin white sauce: add 1 to 2 less tbsp of flour.
Cheese sauce
Make the white sauce, turn the heat off, and add about 1 cup of shredded cheese, stirring until the cheese melts. You can also use shredded dairy-free cheese or grated parmesan cheese. For cauliflower mac and cheese or mac and cheese, add shredded cheddar cheese, then toss with the cauliflower or macaroni. You can cut the milk with half cream or dairy-free cream for an even richer flavor.
Mushroom sauce
Add 1 cup of sautéed mushrooms and 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
Black-truffle béchamel
Make a classic white sauce, then add a tablespoon of truffle oil. This one is my personal favorite for cauliflower gratin and pasta bakes.
Questions
The sauce thickens as it cools down, so you might want to reheat it before use. If it is lumpy, blend it with an immersion blender. If it is too thick, add a splash of milk as it reheats.
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