Strawberry Coulis
Table of Contents
Why this recipe works
This simple strawberry coulis, sometimes called strawberry sauce or strawberry syrup, will add a burst of flavor and color to all of your summer desserts. By following this recipe, you will have a sweet, slightly tart strawberry sauce with the perfect consistency for topping your favorite desserts. It’s so light and smooth!
Using just 3-ingredients and twenty minutes of time, it’s the perfect, easy topper for cheesecakes, ice cream, pancakes, cakes, and more.
What is a fruit coulis?
Coulis is a french word that literally means “grout.” In culinary terms, coulis is a thick sauce made from puréed and strained fruits or vegetables.
You can have both sweet and savory coulis. For example, tomato coulis, roasted bell pepper coulis, and pumpkin coulis, are all savory coulis that can be used as a sauce on main dishes or appetizers.
Sweet coulis include mango coulis, raspberry coulis, and pineapple coulis, which are all used as sauces on top of desserts. Any fresh fruit can be made into a coulis.
Here we’re talking about strawberry coulis, which is a sweet sauce used for topping your favorite desserts! Trust me, don’t be intimidated by this fancy-sounding name. This is the easiest strawberry sauce recipe ever!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Strawberries – You can use either fresh or frozen strawberries for this recipe. If it’s summer and strawberries are in season, I tend to use fresh strawberries because I think the strawberry sauce tastes a bit better. If strawberries are out of season or if you only have frozen on hand, you can absolutely use frozen. There is no need to let your frozen strawberries thaw before adding to the pan, but just know that your cooking time may be a few minutes longer.
- Lemon juice – I prefer to use fresh lemon juice whenever I can. If you’re in a bind, you can use the bottled version for your strawberry syrup. However, if you go this route, maybe add a little less as bottled lemon juice can sometimes be even more tart than fresh.
- Granulated sugar – If you need your coulis to be vegan, just be sure that your granulated sugar is certified vegan since not all sugars are. If you don’t have granulated sugar on hand, you can easily substitute in brown sugar instead. The same measurements will apply.
Step-by-Step instructions
Follow these easy steps to make this simple strawberry sauce with such intense strawberry flavor!
- Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries in halves or quarters.
- Combine strawberries, granulated sugar, and fresh lemon juice into a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, as the strawberries begin to release their juices. Bring to a low boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 15 minutes, mashing the strawberries with a wooden spoon as they break down.
- You can serve the chunky sauce as a strawberry compote with strawberry chunks in it.
- If you prefer, you can also go one step further and strain the strawberry mixture through a fine mesh strainer, pressing the strawberries into the sieve with the back of a spatula to get as much juice as possible out of them.
- Let cool at room temperature until you have a thick sauce and serve over ice cream, cheesecake, panna cotta, or your favorite dessert. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Expert Tips
- If you do not have a fine mesh sieve and you want your strawberry coulis to be a smooth sauce rather than chunky, you can let the sauce cool a bit and then place it in a food processor or use an immersion blender (or stick blender) to make it smooth.
- If you do not like strawberries or do not have strawberries on hand, you can easily swap in other berries in this easy recipe. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and even cherries all work well.
Recipe FAQs
You can store this strawberry coulis in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to a week, or store in the freezer in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. For easy portioning, you can also pour the strawberry coulis into an ice cube mold and freeze until solid. Then transfer the strawberry sauce cubes to a freezer safe bag or container. Remove as many cubes as you would like to use and heat in a pan on the stovetop until smooth before serving.
Strawberry coulis is such a versatile sauce! You can use it on top of New York cheesecake, panna cotta, pancakes, waffles, pound cake, angel food cake, ice cream, rice pudding, french toast, overnight oats, chia pudding… the list goes on! Be as creative as you’d like with this sweet sauce.
It will depend a little bit on whether or not you leave your finished sauce chunky or use the fine sieve to thin it out, but you can expect about 1 cup of strawberry coulis from this recipe.
Use this strawberry coulis with
- Gluten-Free Cheesecake
- Gluten Free Giant Strawberry Pop Tart
- Gluten-Free Pancakes
- Chia Seed Pudding with Blackberry Compote
Did you make this recipe?
I’d love to know! Please rate it and leave a comment below. You can also share your pictures and tag @adashofmegnut on Instagram.
Strawberry Coulis
Ingredients
- 1 lb strawberries (450g)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (75g)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (15g)
Instructions
- Wash, hull and slice the strawberries in half or quarters.
- Place the strawberries, granulated sugar, and fresh lemon juice into a medium or large saucepan over medium heat.
- Heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, as the strawberries begin to release their juices. Bring to a low boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 15 minutes, mashing the strawberries with a wooden spoon as they break down.
- You can serve the strawberry compote as is with strawberry chunks in it.
- If you prefer, you can also go one step further and strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the strawberries into the sieve with the back of a spatula to get as much juice as possible out of them.
- Let cool and serve over ice cream, cheesecake, panna cotta, or your favorite dessert. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
- This recipe makes approximately 1 cup of strawberry coulis, but you may get a little bit less or more depending on whether or not you decide to leave it chunky or strain it through the mesh sieve.
- You can use fresh or frozen strawberries for this recipe. If you use frozen strawberries, it may take a few additional minutes to simmer and break down. There is no need to thaw the frozen strawberries before adding them to the saucepan.
- This strawberry sauce is so versatile. Try it with cheesecake, ice cream, panna cotta, pound cake, angel food cake, pancakes, overnight oats, chia pudding, or whatever else your heart or stomach desires.
- Store your strawberry coulis in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week, or store in the freezer in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
- For easy future use and portioning, you can pour the strawberry coulis into an ice cube mold and freeze until solid. Then transfer the strawberry sauce cubes to a freezer-safe bag or container. Remove as many cubes as you would like to use and heat until smooth before serving.
- If you do not have a fine-mesh sieve, you can also let the sauce cool a little bit and then place it in a food processor or use an immersion blender to make it smooth.
- You can substitute other berries very easily. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or even cherries will all work well with this recipe.
Nutrition
I’m Megan
A gluten-free food blogger from Chicago and lover of all things food, showing you gluten-free can be easy and delicious, too. Let’s make gluten-free stress free together! Read more…
