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This fast and easy strawberry sauce is full of berry flavor! Serve it over vanilla ice cream, Belgian waffles, pancakes, or cheesecake.

Strawberry sauce
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Somehow after cooking for years, we can still find surprises. Meet this easy strawberry sauce! It’s sweetened with maple syrup, done in 10 minutes, and full of big berry flavor despite the short ingredient list. This glistening red sauce makes magic when spooned over vanilla ice cream or thick Belgian waffles. If you’ve got ripe strawberries on hand, it’s the perfect fast dessert to whip up after a meal. And can you imagine it over cheesecake?

Only 3 ingredients for strawberry sauce!

Lucky for you, all you need is 3 ingredients to make strawberry sauce. Because we love to use natural sweeteners, this no refined sugar strawberry sauce is made with pure maple syrup. (Of course, maple syrup has sugar too, mind you! But it’s a more nuanced, gentle sweetness.) Here’s what you’ll need to make strawberry sauce:

  • Ripe strawberries, the riper the better
  • Maple syrup to sweeten
  • Cornstarch to thicken

Want a sweeter sauce? Head to our Strawberry Compote recipe.

Strawberries

How to make strawberry sauce: basic steps

This strawberry sauce is a chunky, thick sauce: it’s not strained so that it’s completely smooth. Because of that, it’s even easier to make because you can leave the berries pretty chunky. And no straining steps is needed! Here’s the basic idea behind this strawberry sauce (or jump to the recipe):

  • Slice: Slice the strawberries.
  • Simmer: Simmer them with maple syrup.
  • Thicken: Pull out a bit of the sauce and mix it with cornstarch (this avoids clumping). Then stir it back in and heat until the sauce thickens.
Strawberry sauce

Smooth vs chunky sauce

The only other thing to note about strawberry sauce is the consistency. We like ours pretty chunky (as you can see). If you’d like it smoother, here are a few things you can do:

  • Mash the strawberries with a spoon as you’re cooking them. They’ll break down faster.
  • Cook a few more minutes at the end of the cook time to get the berries to break down even more.

Find the ripest berries…and local are best!

It goes without saying that this strawberry sauce with local strawberries is phenomenal. If you’ve ever taste tested a local berry vs a grocery berry, you know what I’m talking about. But don’t let that deter you if you don’t have access to them. Simply find the ripest strawberries you can at the grocery store. You’ll thank us later!

Vegan waffles

Ways to serve strawberry sauce

Once you’ve got that beautiful jar of strawberry sauce, the fun part is using it! Here are our top favorite ways to use it:

  1. Vanilla ice cream. Spoon it over ice cream for a quick and easy dessert!
  2. Waffles. The best waffle topping. Try on our cornbread waffles, gluten free waffles or vegan waffles.
  3. Cheesecake. Pour it over this crustless cheesecake for a flavor-filled dessert.
  4. Pancakes. Douse onto Greek yogurt pancakes or sour cream pancakes.
  5. Whipped cream. Top them with whipped cream or vegan whipped cream.
  6. Oatmeal. Make a decadent breakfast by topping the best oatmeal or Instant Pot oatmeal.
  7. Strawberry shortcake. Use this sauce on shortcake instead of fresh berries!
  8. Crepes. Use as a filling for homemade crepes.
  9. French toast. Spread on French toast for a special breakfast.
  10. Cake. Try on applesauce cake, flourless chocolate cake or vanilla mug cake

Storage info

Store that strawberry sauce in a sealed container or jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. But if you’re like us: it doesn’t last that long! You can also freeze it for up to 6 months.

Strawberry sauce

This strawberry sauce is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

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Easy Strawberry Sauce

Strawberry sauce
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This fast and easy strawberry sauce is full of berry flavor! Serve it over vanilla ice cream, Belgian waffles, pancakes, or cheesecake.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 1 ½ cups 1x
  • Category: Sauce
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 pound strawberries
  • 6 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Instructions

  1. Clean, hull and slice the strawberries.
  2. Add the strawberries to a small saucepan with maple syrup and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally while it bubbles gently. After about 5 to 7 minutes when strawberries start to break down, remove 2 tablespoons of sauce that has formed in the pan and whisk together with the cornstarch. Add it back to the pan and stir until thickened, about 3 minutes. If you want less strawberry chunks, mash them while you’re cooking or cook a few minutes longer.
  3. Serve warm or cooled slightly. Store in a sealed container refrigerated for up to 1 week (or cool and freeze up to 6 months).

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Love this sweet red berry? Us too. Here are some of our best strawberry recipes to use them:

About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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