This strawberry sauce recipe, aka strawberry coulis, is the easiest thing ever and perfect with so many things! Don’t strain after cooking and you have strawberry compote!
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Table of contents
What is Strawberry Sauce or Coulis?
Strawberry sauce is strawberries cooked for the briefest of time with sugar and some lemon juice. This cooked mixture is then strained, giving you a smooth, “clean”, bright red sauce that you can drizzle to your heart’s content. It is also known as strawberry coulis, one of many French words so ingrained in the English language.
Language Fun
Because we love that kinda stuff on LinsFood!
How do you pronounce coulis? Coo – lee.
Coulis refers to any thick purée or strained thickened juice made from vegetables or fruit. It comes from the French root word couler, which means to flow. But the ultimate source of the word coulis is the Latin colare, which means flow through or strain, also giving rise to the English colander.
Ingredients
You only need 3 ingredients to make strawberry sauce or strawberry compote.
- Strawberries (fresh or frozen)
- Sugar (or sweetener of choice)
- a little lemon juice to ensure a striking bright colour
Do you need cornstarch or cornflour for making strawberry coulis or sauce? No, you don’t. Because why mess with perfection? The sauce will thicken as it cools and have the perfect pouring consistency.
What about Raspberry Sauce or Coulis Recipe?
The same recipe works for raspberries. You can make raspberry coulis or raspberry sauce in the exact same manner, using fresh or frozen raspberries. The only thing you have to do is up the sugar content to 200g (1 cup), as raspberries are naturally tart.
How to Use Strawberry Sauce?
Use it any which way you can think of! You can use this strawberry sauce as a topping, as a drizzle or literally, as a sauce! And depending on what you’re serving it with, you can use it warm or cold.
I much prefer my strawberry sauce cold, so always place it in the fridge for a few hours before using, or even overnight. It’s great with:
- panna cotta
- rice pudding (and many other kinds of pudding)
- shortcakes
- cheesecakes
- pancakes and waffles
- pavlovas
- in trifles
- in strawberry tiramisu
- vanilla ice cream (or any ice cream)
- yoghurt
- French toast
What is Strawberry Compote?
If you don’t strain the cooked strawberry mixture, then you’ll end up with a lovely strawberry compote, as in the image below. Essentially, your strawberry sauce is full of soft, pulpy strawberries and it’s absolutely delicious!
How do you use strawberry compote? The same way you would use the sauce. But strawberry compote can also be incorporated into batters and doughs when making cakes and cookies.
Using the same method, you can make compote out of any fruit you like, with berries producing some of the best results. So think blueberries, blackberries and as mentioned above, most definitely, raspberries.
If you want a thicker strawberry compote, cook it for slightly longer, say 20 minutes. Or cook it on medium-low heat instead of low. Don’t add any cornflour or cornstarch, as it’ll just change the mouthfeel and flavour.
What to do with the leftover fruit from Strawberry Sauce?
Use it in exactly the same manner you would use the strawberry sauce and strawberry compote. In other words:
- top ice cream with it – sundaes or layered ice cream
- have it with some mascarpone
- whip some double (thick) cream and have it that way
- bake with it! Add it to any cake or cookie batter/dough
How to Store Strawberry Sauce or Strawberry Compote?
Keep your strawberry Coulis or compote in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to a week. Serve cold, or, if you want it warm, just reheat it gently on the stove.
Strawberry sauce and compote also freeze very well. Place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. To use, just defrost on the counter for an hour or two (depending on season) or take it out of the freezer the night before and defrost in the fridge overnight.
And that’s all there is to it! Shall we get our aprons on?
Recipes for using Strawberry Sauce or Compote
Strawberry Sauce Recipe (aka Coulis) + Strawberry Compote
Ingredients
- 400 g fresh strawberries (frozen will work too)
- 100 g white sugar
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Strawberry Sauce (Strawberry Coulis)
- Rinse the strawberries and remove the calyces (the green tops). Slice them in halves or quarters if they're big.
- Place the strawberries in a small pan and add the sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer on medium-low heat.You can add half the sugar if you don't like things too sweet, then add more at the end if you fancy, after tasting.
- Stir, then turn the heat right down and simmer everything for 10 minutes.
- Take it off the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. And optional step is to mash down your strawberries with a potato masher to get more flavour out of the strawberries.Then strain, using a heat proof strainer/sieve that's not too fine. Push down on the cooked fruit with the back of a spoon, to extract as much of the sauce as possible. Voíla, you have yourself some delicious strawberry sauce!
Strawberry Compote Recipe
- We start off doing exactly the same thing as above.Rinse the strawberries and remove the calyces (the green tops). Slice them in halves or quarters if they're big.
- Place the strawberries in a small pan and add the sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer on medium-low heat.You can add half the sugar if you don't like things too sweet, then add more at the end if you fancy, after tasting.
- Stir, then turn the heat right down and simmer everything for 10 minutes.This is your strawberry compote all done.Cook it for 10 more minutes if you want a thicker compote.
Love this Azlin. It will be so handy to use with various desserts, will make it once I get strawberries here.
Thank you, Jaya. Let me know how it goes.
Wow! This Strawberry sauce recipe was absolutely delicious, thank you!
My pleasure, Jamie.