Sauce Gribiche is a classic French sauce that starts with the mashed yolks of hard-boiled eggs and adds tang from briny ingredients like capers and cornichons. Stir in mustard, olive oil, and fresh herbs, and you have a flavorful cold dipping sauce perfect for artichoke leaves, asparagus spears, or almost any roasted or grilled veggie.
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Great sauces take dishes from boring to memorable and should be part of everyone's tool box for easy cooking. A good lemony basil pesto is a perfect example, as is a flavor-packed chimichurri sauce. They don't have to be complicated and most can be whipped up in minutes.
Gribiche is one of my favorites to have on hand in the spring and early summer.
🤷♀️ What is Sauce Gribiche?
We're all familiar with egg-based French sauces. Hollandaise, mayonnaise, and aioli are some of the most famous ones, at least in this country. Gribiche is not as well known, but it should have its place in the sun with its star-power cousins.
Classic sauce gribiche is a cold sauce made by emulsifying the yolks from hard-boiled eggs with Dijon-style mustard, vinegar, and olive oil. Traditional recipes then add chopped cornichons, capers, and fresh herbs to the emulsion sauce. Popular herb choices are parsley, chervil, chives, and/or tarragon. Lastly, finely chopped egg whites and the remaining hard-cooked yolks are folded into the sauce to create a chunky sauce.
The finished texture can range from very chunky to relatively smooth, depending on personal preferences and how it will be used.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- It's easy and quick to make.
- There are a lot of ways to use it. Serve over asparagus, use as a dip for artichoke leaves, or in place of an aioli for a roasted or grilled veggie dish.
- Flexible. Add more olive oil and vinegar to make a vinaigrette. Or add some fresh herbs such as oregano or minced shallot.
- No fancy ingredients, so you'll likely always have what you need on hand.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
The secret to faster and easier meals often lies in the ingredients. For example, store-bought items and ingredients you make ahead and store in the refrigerator (or freezer) can turn a 60-minute recipe into a 30-minutes meal or less.
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Eggs - Purchase pastured eggs if you have them available. These eggs come from chickens who have access to outdoor pastures, resulting in eggs with a richer flavor and higher nutritional profile.
- Dijon mustard - any Dijon-style mustard works well.
- Seasoned rice vinegar - White wine vinegar is another great choice.
- Cornichons - these are tiny, tart French gherkins. They are of a dill variety, so if you can't find them, substitute chopped dill pickles (not sweet pickles).
- Parsley - I prefer Italian flat parsley instead of curly parsley.
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🔪 Recommended Equipment
- Saucepan - for hard boiling the eggs.
- Whisk - for making the emulsified sauce.
- Chef's knife
- Potato ricer - optional for a more sauce-like consistency seen below.
💡 What Goes With Gribiche
I've seen this sauce as a puréed sauce, as in this recipe, and more coarsely chopped. I do it both ways, depending on what I'm using if for.
- It's fabulous in its coarsely chopped form over roasted asparagus in this asparagus gribiche, which I make every year for Easter.
- Roast some potatoes and broccoli and add enough gribiche to coat everything or add it to your favorite potato salad in place of some of the mayonnaise.
- Use it as a dip for roasted broccoli spears or artichoke leaves in place of an aioli.
🥩 Tips for Omnivores
Traditionally this cold eggy sauce was served with a selection of cold meats and fish. Think slices of pork or chilled salmon or trout that's been poached, grilled, or roasted.
🙋♀️ FAQ
It reminds me of a briny egg salad that has a more sauce-like texture. If you like egg salad, you'll love this sauce.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
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How to Make Sauce Gribiche (the Easy French Sauce)
Equipment
- medium pot
- Potato Ricer optional, depending on how smooth you want the sauce
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or 1 ¼ teaspoons table salt
- 4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons seasoned Rice vinegar, or white wine/champagne vinegar
- ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil, use a good quality of olive oil
- 4 tablespoons capers, coarsely chopped
- 8 cornichons, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon minced chives
Instructions
- Place the eggs in a pot and cover them by at least 1 inch with water. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl of ice water to cool before peeling.
- While the eggs are cooking, whisk the salt, 2 tablespoons of the mustard, and all of the vinegar together. Prep the capers, cornichons, garlic and place in a small bowl. Prep the parsley and set aside.
- Remove the yolks from two of the hard boiled eggs, and thoroughly mash them in a small bowl with the remaining 2 tablespoons of mustard using a fork. Whisk the mashed yolk into the vinegar, and slowly add the olive oil while whisking to emulsify.
- Pro-Tip: Slowly pouring in the oil at a dribble helps ensure good emulsion in the sauce.
- Whisk in the capers, cornichons, garlic and pepper.
- Finely chop the remaining eggs, or use a potato ricer for a less chunky sauce. Stir it all into the sauce, along with the parsley and chives.
- Taste and season with additional salt, pepper, herbs or vinegar for your own preferences. Serve at room temperature.
Liz
What a lovely sauce! I've never even heard of it, but it sounds perfect for my next batch of steamed artichokes!!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much, Liz. It would be fabulous with artichokes. I'm planning on picking up some artichokes today and plan to use them this way tonight for dinner!!
Jodie Cooper
I might make this and add a bunch of fresh dill as it is my favorite herb flavor.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Oh I love that idea. It would be wonderful with fresh dill!! Let me know how it works for you!
Jane
This sauce is new to me but with that list of ingredients, I can't wait to make it! Sounds like a real winner Susan!!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I haven't made it in awhile, and this month's theme was a great reminder to make it again!!
Barbara Kiebel
I have never heard of this before Susan and now I'm dying for some. I eat a lot of veggies, dressing them up occasionally would be nice and this sauce? Mwah!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much!! I think you'd really like it! No dairy or mayo, either. It's great with just about anything :-).
Ansh Dhar
I will probably eat this sauce by the spoonfuls. This will make a great topping sauce for anything !
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks much!! It works so well for any veggie, and is pretty easy to make!
Karen
That is so interesting! I'm so intrigues and am looking forward to trying it. I happen to have cornichons too! Learned something new today!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I think you'd really love it. You could also use it for dipping some of your fabulous breads!
Dorothy Reinhold
I have had this sauce with artichokes at a restaurant, but I haven't yet made it. I can't wait to have it with potatoes, broccoli, carrots and asparagus. Such great suggestions!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much! I meant to pick up some artichokes today to dip the leaves into this gribiche!
Kurt
How many minced egg whites do you use?
The Wimpy Vegetarian
You'll use the hard boiled egg whites and yolks from all 4 eggs. Two of the cooked egg yolks are mashed into the mustard, and then added to the vinegar, and drizzled with olive oil to form a dressing. The other 2 cooked yolks and the cooked whites from all 4 eggs are then minced. I hope that helps!
Shari
This was good, but it was crazy too salty before I added the cornichons and capers! So I didn’t add them. I made a second batch by just throwing everything except the salt into the blender, then stirred some of the first one I made into that to season it, so it had pieces of egg in it. Now I have an enormous batch of gribiche, so we will indeed be eating it on and with everything. I suspect this is the type of sauce where you put a smear on the plate, not one you pour over your food.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I'm sorry it was too salty for you on the first batch! I'm curious whether you used kosher salt, sea salt or regular table salt? I make this several times a year and haven't found it too salty, although I admit we like salt here at my house. But I want to adjust the recipe for others if I need to! Thanks so much for letting me know.
sophia donna
Lovely post! I really enjoyed how you explained the Gribiche sauce in such simple steps — especially the balance of tangy and creamy flavors. It’s great to see traditional French recipes made approachable for home cooks.
Looking forward to trying this recipe soon!
Susan Pridmore
Thank you!