Aishling Moore: A simple lemon sole recipe with a fantastic watercress sauce

Keep it simple for best results

Lemon sole with watercress sauce Picture: Chani Anderson

This weekend’s recipe is all about simplicity, with some beautifully seared fillets of lemon sole served with a quick and vibrant watercress sauce. This watercress sauce is fantastic with just about any fish so use whatever’s freshest. Turbot is in season right now so keep an eye out for those meaty flat fish fillets which would be wonderful with this sauce.

Keep the accompaniments for this dish uncomplicated too, some steamed new spuds (still in their jackets please!) and a crisp green salad.

I always find keeping things simple when cooking, whether it’s in a professional kitchen or a home kitchen, produces the best results.

On Sunday, July 5, at the Dublin Cookery School the Eurotoques Young Chef of the Year 2026 semi-finals took place. Fifteen of Ireland’s most promising young chefs battled it out for a place in the finals which will take place in October.

I was delighted to be judging this year with Danny Africano (Lignum), Keelan Higgs (Variety Jones), Robbie Krawczyk (Restaurant Chestnut) and Gareth Mullins (Anantara The Marker Dublin). The competition kitchen was led by Conor Halpenny of Square Dundalk and Domini Kemp of Lotties Rathmines. Exceptional Irish seafood was the theme with the young chefs’ day beginning with a 30 minute skills test of shucking and preparing oysters.

The chefs were tasked with presenting three raw oysters and three cooked oysters with dressings of their choice. The second 90 minute challenge saw competitors presented with a mystery basket where they were asked to compose a dish of three mandatory elements: Irish line caught ling, seasonal vegetables and a sauce.

Aine Budds, Shannon Caulfied, Aymeric Decourval, Sam Nourse, Jack Rice and Simone Tamilio are this year’s finalists.

Lemon sole with watercress sauce

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This watercress sauce is fantastic with just about any fish so use whatever’s freshest.

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the watercress sauce

• 2tb rapeseed oil

• 1 shallot sliced

• 3 cloves garlic sliced

• 150ml white wine

• 230g crème fraiche

• Sea salt

• For the lemon sole

• 400g lemon sole fillets

• 2tb vegetable oil

• Fine sea salt

• 1 lemon

Method

1. For the watercress sauce

2. Place a medium size pot on moderate heat.

3. Warm the rapeseed oil and add the sliced shallot and garlic, season with sea salt and cook without colour for about 4 minutes until softened.

4. Turn the heat up to high and add the white wine, bring to the boil and reduce by half.

5. Add the crème fraiche and bring to the boil.

6. Add the watercress to the pot, cook for 1 minute and then remove from the heat.

7. Transfer to a jug blender or blend the contents in the pot using a hand held blender. Puree on the highest speed until the sauce is vivid green and velvety.

8. Taste to correct seasoning and set aside whilst cooking the lemon sole.

9. For the lemon sole

10. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

11. Pat the fillets of fish dry with some kitchen paper to remove any excess water. Season with fine sea salt.

12. Preheat a carbon steel or non – stick frying pan on medium high heat for two minutes. Add the oil and warm.

13. Working in batches, place the lemon sole in the pan, laying the fillets skin side down and away from you, to avoid oil splatters. Do not disturb the fillet or move the pan.

14. Once the fish is golden brown on one side, using a fish slice, confidently lift the fillet from the pan and place on a lightly greased tray.

15. Once all the fillets are seared on one side place the tray in the oven for 2-3 minutes to finish cooking depending on the size of the fish.

16. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and serve with the warmed watercress sauce.

Fish Tales

Store fish fillets on a plate or tray in a single layer in the fridge. Avoid stacking fillets and covering in plastic, both will cause the fish to leech water.

Remove the fish from the fridge 15 minutes before cooking.

If you are nervous about the fillets sticking to the pan you can coat them lightly in flour to create a non-stick barrier. Make sure you shake off the excess before adding to the pan.

Allowing the crust of caramelisation to develop evenly at the beginning of cooking the fish is key and will make removing the fillets much easier to remove from the pan.

No matter what piece of fish you are cooking when removing from a pan always lift from the tail end of the fish. It causes less damage to the skin.

Swap watercress for a mix of flat leaf parsley, dill and chervil. Spinach can also be used in the sauce too.