How to make creamy dill sauce for salmon (or most seafood dishes). This recipe is easy, calls for a short list of ingredients, and lasts in the fridge for a week.

I’ve always been that person who thinks that enough sauce can make just about anything better. We’ve been enjoying this creamy dill sauce recipe over the last week, and we’re obsessed. We created it as a sauce to serve with our salmon patties, but just like our favorite tartar sauce, the serving suggestions go beyond just one recipe for this one (this lemon dill baked salmon or oven baked trout are two that immediately come to mind).

The ingredient list is short and simple, and the only trick to making it the best is to let it sit for 30 minutes so the lemon, dill, and garlic can meld and permeate the creamy sauce.

Key Ingredients

• Sour Cream and Mayonnaise: The base of this sauce is sour cream, with a little mayonnaise for extra flavor. We use this combination of sour cream and mayo for our potato salad dressing and love it. If you’re looking for a yogurt-based sauce, you can substitute the sour cream for plain thick yogurt. I like sticking with a brand that’s less tangy, like Fage or Siggi’s.
• Dill: This is a dill sauce, after all. We call for fresh dill in our recipe below, but you can use dried dill if that’s all you have on hand. When substituting dried dill for fresh, use 1/3 the amount. So, in the recipe below, you will use 1 tablespoon of dried dill instead of the 3 tablespoons of fresh dill we call for.
• Lemon: Fresh lemon is best here. We use both zest and juice to boost the lemon flavor. I love our microplane grater for zesting citrus zest, and I always zest my lemon before slicing and juicing it.
• Garlic Powder: This is my secret ingredient for our homemade ranch dressing, and it works like a charm in this sauce, too.
• Salt and Pepper: We suggest how much salt and pepper to add, but you really want to taste as you go and add enough to make your palate happy! If the sauce does not pop when you taste it, it probably needs a pinch more salt.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Our Favorite Dill Sauce for Salmon

Tip 1: Use a spoon to stir everything together. This sauce is easy! All you need to do is add all of the ingredients to a bowl and stir them together.

Tip 2: Let it rest for 30 minutes. This sauce gets better with time. We highly recommend letting the sauce sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving. If you don’t believe me, taste it before you place it into the fridge, and then again after it’s rested. It’s completely different, and the lemon and dill will have permeated throughout the whole bowl. Worth it!

Serving Suggestions

Think of this sauce as a stand-in for times you’d see tartar sauce on a plate. It’s lovely with all kinds of seafood dishes. It’s especially good with salmon recipes, but don’t think you are limited to just salmon. Here’s a list of my top recipes to serve with this sauce: