Using only 3 ingredients, this easy strawberry coulis recipe can be made in less than 15 minutes, making it an easy topping for cheesecake, pancakes, and other desserts!
Doesn’t this strawberry sauce look luscious?! It’s such an easy and delicious homemade sauce to use on top of your favorite desserts.
This sweet strawberry sauce is a coulis, which is a thin pureed fruit or vegetable sauce. Unlike a compote, which tends to have whole or partial berries in it, a coulis is super smooth and tends to be on the thinner side, making it perfect for drizzling on ice cream and other desserts.
Why you’ll love it:
- Easy: It uses only 3 ingredients and can be made in 15 minutes!
- Customizable: You can make it thinner, thicker, or add different flavors (check out the section below on fun variations!).
- Year Round: Because it can be made with both fresh strawberries and frozen strawberries, you can make it all year round!
Plus, it stores beautifully in the fridge or freezer and it’s naturally gluten free, dairy free, and vegan making it a perfect easy topping for your favorite dessert or snack.
Ingredients
- Strawberries: fresh or frozen strawberry both work beautifully in this recipe.
- Lemon Juice: you can also use different juices such as orange juice, lime juice, or liquors like Chambord. You can even use water.
- Sugar: The amount of sugar can depend on the sweetness of the berries and also personal preference. I recommend starting with a few tablespoons and adding more if needed. You can also use honey, agave, maple syrup, or brown sugar.
How to Make
Similar to blueberry coulis or raspberry coulis, this recipe is super simple! You need only 3 ingredients and it takes just 15 minutes.
STEP 1: SIMMER BERRIES, SUGAR, AND LEMON JUICE
If using fresh berries, remove the stems. Frozen berries are good to go.
Then, simmer the berries, sugar, and lemon juice over medium heat until they are very soft and start to break down, about 8-10 minutes. If necessary, cook a few minutes longer for frozen berries.
STEP 2: PUREE strawberry MIXTURE
Let the mixture cool for a few minutes. Then, using a regular blender, immersion blender, or food processor blend the mixture until smooth.
STEP 3: STRAIN (OPTIONAL)
If you like a slightly thicker, more textured sauce you can leave it as is. Otherwise, strain the sauce using a fine mesh sieve for a super smooth coulis with no tiny strawberry seeds.
TIPS FOR MAKING THIS RECIPE
- Adjust the sweetness and flavors to taste. Depending on the type of berries and season, you might need more or less sugar. Be sure to try a bit and adjust accordingly.
- The strawberry coulis will thicken as it cools. If, when you’re ready to serve you find it is too thick our you want a thinner coulis, you can add a tablespoon or two of water, orange juice, or flavored liqueurs to thin it out.
- If you like or don’t mind strawberry seeds in your sauce, leave them in! Straining the seeds out of the strawberry sauce is totally optional.
- You can easily double or triple the recipe as needed.
FLAVOR VARIATIONS
There are so many flavors that go great with strawberries and really kick up this coulis to another level.
- Strawberry Blueberry Coulis: replace half of the strawberries with fresh or frozen blueberries and cook as directed. You can also use other strawberry fruit combinations like raspberry, blackberry or kiwi.
- Strawberry Champagne Coulis: Replace the lemon juice with ¼ cup of Champagne or Prosecco.
- Strawberry Liqueur Coulis: Replace the lemon juice with 2 tablespoons of liqueurs such as Chambord or Cointreau.
- Strawberry Mint Coulis: Simmer the sauce with a handful or fresh mint. Be sure to remove the herbs before blending. You can also use basil!
You can also add various extracts like a ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract for strawberry vanilla or almond extract for strawberry almond. Or a pinch of cinnamon. Delicious!
When to Use
It’s a very versatile dessert sauce and has so many uses:
- Desserts: You can drizzle on top of cakes like angel food cake, pound cake, vanilla cake, cheesecake, pavlova, ice cream, pudding, panna cotta, tarts, churros, or lemon posset.
- Breakfast/brunch: Similar to lemon curd, this coulis is a perfect breakfast or brunch staple. It’s great on top of yogurt, french toast, pancakes, and waffles.
- Appetizers: This is a delicious dip or spread for your cheese board, dessert board, or crostini appetizers!
- Drinks: I love using this as a base for drinks like smoothies, milkshakes, and cocktails like strawberry mimosas (just add champagne and orange juice!).
FAQ
The sauce will thicken a bit as cools but if you want a thicker strawberry sauce, there are two easy ways to thicken the coulis:
Continue cooking the mixture: After you’ve pureed, cook the mixture down another 3-5 minutes if you want it a bit thicker.
Add cornstarch: While the mixture is still warm, make a cornstarch slurry by adding ½ tablespoon of cornstarch to 2-3 tablespoons of the warm strawberry puree. Mix until combined and there are no visible lumps of cornstarch. Then add the slurry back to the saucepan of strawberry coulis and cook another minute or two until it’s thickened.
And, if you’re looking for a very thick sauce, check out this strawberry filling. It’s perfect for filling layer cakes and cupcakes.
Yes, this recipe is very freezer friendly!
STORING AND Making Ahead
This will keep 3-5 days in the refrigerator as long as it’s in an airtight container.
Strawberry coulis also freezes beautifully. You can make it ahead and then store it in a plastic freezer bag or airtight container for up to 3 months. When ready to use, defrost in the fridge and then let come to room temperature.
Looking for more strawberry recipes? Check these out!
- Oven Dried Strawberries
- Candied Strawberries
- Chocolate Covered Strawberries
- Strawberry Milk
- Deviled Strawberries
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Strawberry Coulis
Equipment
- Saucepan
- fine mesh strainer optional
- regular or immersion blender optional
INGREDIENTS
- 16 oz strawberries fresh or frozen
- ½ cup granulated sugar more or less to taste
- 2 tbs lemon juice juice from ½ lemon
Instructions
- If using fresh berries, remove the stems. In a medium saucepan, simmer the berries, sugar, and lemon juice over medium heat until they are very soft, about 8-10 minutes. The longer you boil it the thicker sauce it will be.
- Let the mixture cool for a few minutes.
- Using a regular or immersion blender, blend the mixture until smooth.
- If you like a slightly thicker, more textured sauce you can leave it as is.
- Otherwise, strain the berries out of the strawberry coulis using a fine mesh strainer for a super smooth coulis.
- If you want a thinner sauce, you can add a bit more lemon juice, water or flavored liquor to thin it out to your desired consistency.
- Enjoy on your favorite dessert or in a strawberry mimosa!
Video
Notes
- Adjust the sweetness and flavors to taste. Depending on the type of berries and season, you might need more or less sugar. Be sure to try a bit and adjust accordingly.
- The strawberry coulis will thicken as it cools. If, when you’re ready to serve you find it is too thick our you want a thinner coulis, you can add a tablespoon or two of water, orange juice, or flavored liquors to thin it out.
- If you like or don’t mind strawberry seeds in your sauce, leave them in! Straining the seeds out of the strawberry sauce is totally optional.
- This recipe makes about 1.5-2 cups coulis. You can easily half or double the recipe as needed.
- The coulis will last 3-5 days in an airtight container in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer.
This is wonderful! We love it on our pancakes and even ice cream – delish!
I love that the coulis was super easy to make. We use it in plain vanilla ice cream.
This is delicious! It was a perfect pairing for our pancakes on the weekend so I’ll definitely be making it again.
YUM! We enjoyed this on top of cheesecake and it was excellent!