Horseradish Sauce
36 Comments
Dec 07, 2023
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This is the best homemade horseradish sauce! Spoon it over meat, spread it onto bread, or dip it with chopped veggies. However you use it, it’s a well-balanced sauce that’s wonderfully creamy, slightly spiced, and perfectly flavored with fresh Dijon mustard and chives.
What Is Horseradish Sauce?
If you’re not familiar with horseradish – it’s a pungent root vegetable that’s typically grated and preserved into a condiment (also known as prepared horseradish). Just a small spoonful of this can brighten up whatever you’re cooking, from homemade vinaigrettes to slow roasted salmon.
But when you blend it with creamy elements such as sour cream or mayonnaise, it becomes this sensational horseradish sauce. The perfect accompaniment to impressive beef tenderloin and prime rib during the holidays!
The best part is that this sauce doesn’t mask the succulent, meaty flavors we want to taste. Instead, it acts as a palette cleanser between each bite. It’s no wonder why creamy horseradish sauce is always served with the best cuts of meat!
Horseradish Sauce Ingredients
Since horseradish itself is quite potent (almost like wasabi), it just needs a few fresh additions, like tangy sour cream, Dijon mustard, and chopped chives. Once you do a taste test, you’ll know what I mean when I say that the flavors are simple yet complex.
- Sour Cream: This makes up the majority of the sauce to create a cooling, light, and creamy effect.
- Horseradish: To keep things simple, I’m using a store-bought bottle of prepared horseradish. But you most certainly can make your own at home.
- Dijon Mustard: This mustard is perfectly spiced and adds a little oomph to the sauce.
- Mayonnaise: Just one tablespoon is needed to enhance the light, creamy flavors. And if you’ve got time – it’s super easy to whip up your own mayonnaise!
- Chives: When it comes to creamy sauces, chives always add a fresh, herbal touch.
- Salt & Pepper: A pinch of both ties all the flavors happening in this sauce together.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
How to Make The Best Horseradish Sauce For Prime Rib, Beef Tenderloin, and More!
Lucky for you, this sauce doesn’t require any kitchen appliance. All you need to do is stir everything together in a small bowl and voila! You have a horseradish sauce ready to serve immediately.
Ways To Use Horseradish Sauce
I think I’ve raved enough about how well this sauce tastes with all sorts of beefy mains, but it doesn’t stop there. Here’s a few more reasons why you should make two (or three) batches of this special sauce.
- Spread onto bread. Just toast up some slices, spread a layer of horseradish sauce, and make a meaty sandwich out of it.
- Serve with fresh veggies. Swap out ranch with creamy horseradish sauce instead on a veggie platter! This tastes great with fresh cut celery, cucumbers, or carrots.
- Serve with beefy meats. When serving to guests, I’ll normally spoon it over the sliced meats for a stunning presentation. Or you can dip each bite into it!
To Store
This is a great sauce to have on hand in the fridge. And if you have a little extra, here’s how you store it:
- To store: Store the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
- To freeze: You can freeze the sauce in an airtight container for up to 3 months. But just note that it may lose a bit of its pungent taste over time. And when you’re ready to use, let it defrost in the fridge or at room temperature, then give it a stir before serving.
More Delicious Sauces For Meats
While horseradish sauce tastes amazing with beef, here’s a few other sauces that are delicious with chicken, pork, or seafood!
- Tzatziki Sauce: Dip everything in my Greek sheet pan chicken into homemade tzatziki. It’s also great with baked tuna meatballs.
- Chimichurri Sauce: This herbaceous sauce is great for a fresh, glossy layer over meats and seafood.
- Basil Pesto: Spoon this over my herb baked chicken breast for a fresh chicken dinner!
- Romesco Sauce: Simmer this with cod in a pan or spoon over baked chicken.
- Marinara Sauce: As we all know, marinara works with almost everything!
Needless to say, this horseradish sauce needs to be a part of your Christmas dinner recipe list, along with prime rib and beef tenderloin. If you make it, let me know how it turned out in a comment below!
Horseradish Sauce for Prime Rib and Steak
Description
Video
Ingredients
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, stir together the sour cream, horseradish, mayonnaise, chives, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper.
- Transfer it to a small serving bowl and top with extra chopped chives for garnish.
Lisa’s Tips
- Want to make this dairy-free? Just swap in a dairy-free sour cream! You can use a store-bought option or make my cashew sour cream.
Nutrition
©Downshiftology. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Recipe originally published December 2021, but updated to include new information for your benefit!
My family loved this! We used it on our Christmas roast and it was a huge hit.
Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful! So happy you all loved it, Lauren!
I was wanting to know if this is something that could be made the day before? Also, for the ingredient of prepared horseradish sauce, I have a friend who made me homemade horseradish. Is that something I could incorporate into this sauce and how? I’ve never made horseradish sauce.
Yes, absolutely. And I think it’s even better as the flavors all meld together overnight. It sounds like your friend made the prepared horseradish, so you can swap that in for that ingredient in the recipe. Enjoy!
Fantastic recipe for the tenderloin on Christmas Eve. Can you send me an email with the entire recipe from start to table of butter application and horseradish sauce? Many thanks in advance. B
How hot is this? Looking for the nice horseradish taste with some heat but not overwhelming.
Hi Cheryl – this is not too hot at all!
Really delicious!
Happy you loved the recipe!
I can’t wait to try this prime rib. My boys are visiting for the holidays & that is their favorite meal, they were never big on turkey. It makes my mouth water just reading the ingredients
I hope you and your family enjoy both the prime rib recipe and this horseradish sauce!
I wanted to use this recipe because I have a roast in my crock pot and I love horseradish. I was so disappointed, at first, because the chives I was going to use were spoiled. So, instead, I just added a little onion powder. Girl!! I had to cover it quick and put it in the fridge to meld before I just ate all of it out of the bowl with the spoon!! Sweet Jesus in heaven this is good sauce!! Thank you for sharing it.
Thrilled to hear you enjoyed this horseradish sauce, Penny!
I expect to make your horseradish sauce (in lieu of my chimichurri sauce) next weekend – when I grill my (homemade)-marinated flank steak. Your horseradish sauce recipe peaked my interest. However, most other recipes for such call for a tsp. of either apple cider vinegar, champagne vinegar or Worcestershire sauce. So, dare I alter your recipe? Your thoughts?
Ian
Morristown, NJ
Hi Ian – I don’t feel it’s necessary, but of course, recipes are always personal taste preference. :)
Ian, I saw those recipes, too. I thought they sounded good. The difference is they don’t use Dijon mustard like in this recipe. I’ve never tried champagne vinegar but it sounds delicious and I also like white vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. But I thought the pairing of horseradish and Dijon and the other ingredients sounded really good! And it is!
This is downright delicious! Best horseradish sauce ever! Served with beef tenderloin roast. Made an excellent me for my family and guests! Thank you for sharing!
Made this sauce tonight for our Chateaubriand Holiday meal. Nice and mild but the perfect touch of horseradish!
Delicious and SO easy/fast! This is our favorite horseradish sauce recipe by far. Because we like it spicy, I added an extra tablespoon of horse radish, and one tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce. For salt, we used a smokey SF Fire sea salt. It definitely cleared our nostrils! Happy Holidays to you and yours.
I’m confused- the “prepared horseradish “ in your recipe looks like horseradish sauce you can buy because it looks creamy compared to the Prepared horseradish I buy which is like “minced “
Which one do I get?
You would want the mince rather than the sauce (which usually has dairy already in it).
Fell down when I made this it was so good. Served with filets. Use real horseradish. Heavenly!
Hi, this recipe looks lovely! But do you think I can substitute the “prepared” horseradish with freshly grated one?
(I’m not keen on the store bought ones I can find here)
I think that could work Yosh!
This sauce is delicious, I made it for Christmas and we had on beef, chicken and veggies, even my toddler loved it. I’m not sure I ever would have tried horseradish if it weren’t for your recipe, so glad I follow your posts Thanks for another great recipe Lisa!
Glad this recipe introduced you to the beauty of horseradish! It truly is the best paired with all sorts of steaks.
Even as Asian-American, I am not a huge fan of wassabi and horseradish, but I loved this sauce!! It paired perfectly with the beef tenderloin just as you said and I definitely plan to make more to eat with veggies and other cuts of meat. Thank you for sharing!
This truly is the best sauce to make with all sorts of steak mains :)
Hello! Looking forward to making your Garlic Crusted Prime Rib and just stumbled upon this sauce. I bought horseradish sauce and it’s overwhelming. I’d love to serve this alongside it instead, but I don’t have sour cream😕 Can I use buttermilk and double the Mayo? Or do you have any other suggestions
Hi Candice – I do think sour cream is pretty important in this recipe. I don’t think mayo or buttermilk will give you a similar texture or flavor. But hope you enjoy my prime rib recipe!
When I can’t find sour cream I use double cream and stir in a bit of lemon. It thickens cream and gives it the sour hint too.
Great with the beef tenderloin. Would double the recipe though.
Made this with the beef tenderloin last night for a dinner party, and it was seriously the perfect pairing! Also.. for those who haven’t made the beef tenderloin yet, it’s a must!
Glad you enjoyed both the beef tenderloin plus the horseradish sauce Emily!
Is it possible to substitute yogurt for sour cream?
Sure, it would just have a slightly different flavor.