Name: Easy Blueberry Sauce (5 Minutes!)
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 4 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries; 1/2 cup pure maple syrup; 1 teaspoon lemon zest; 1 pinch cinnamon (optional); 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Want a stunning topping for pancakes or waffles? This blueberry sauce is quick and turns out purple and syrupy, with the flavor of pure blueberry.

A few days ago, Alex and I came into 5 pounds of blueberries. Yes, 5 pounds! We were up in South Haven, Michigan and picked a bounty of berries that ended up costing a mere $5. So what to do with loads of blueberries? Make all the blueberry recipes. Blueberry scones, blueberry salad, blueberry crisp, blueberry cobbler.

The most berry-tastic of them all? This blueberry sauce. It’s luxurious, thick, syrupy, bright purple, and tastes like eating 1 million blueberries at once. It’s made with only 5 ingredients! There’s no refined sugar: it’s naturally sweet, too. Yes, you need this in your life. Let’s get started.

How to make blueberry sauce (in 5 minutes!)

This blueberry sauce could not be quicker or simpler: it requires just 4 ingredients and 5 minutes. It almost seems like cheating, really! You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries here, since the blueberries will break down into the sauce. So, you don’t even need to have come into a major blueberry stash like we did!

Here’s how to make blueberry sauce (or go the full recipe):

Place blueberries in a saucepan with maple syrup, lemon zest, cinnamon (optional) and cornstarch mixed with a little water.
Heat over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly but keep it bubbling; cook until the blueberries break down and the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes total. Just cook until your desired thickness and texture is reached.

Taste, and be amazed at how perfectly blueberry-y it tastes! Keep in mind though: if you use a wooden spoon like we did, it will turn purple. Just a hazard of the job!

How to serve blueberry sauce

Once you have a jar of blueberry sauce, the fun begins! Here are the best ways we could think of to use it:

1. Serve over vanilla ice cream.

2. Slather on pancakes.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes: classic, fluffy and a little tangy from the buttermilk: a perfect fit! (Use our Vegan Blueberry Pancakes for vegan.)
Banana Oatmeal Pancakes: pancakes with a healthy spin, they’re made with oats and banana, making them naturally gluten-free.
Lemon Poppy Seed Oatmeal Pancakes: they’re fluffy and lemony, these babies are also made of oatmeal. Lemon is the perfect partner for blueberry sauce.

3. Swirl into yogurt or oatmeal.

The Best Toasted Oatmeal: our favorite oatmeal is nutty and toasted. People rave over this stuff!
Best Instant Oatmeal Recipe: if you’re in a hurry, make up some instant oatmeal — you’ll have oatmeal in just 3 minutes.
Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats: got an Instant Pot? It’s the best way to make a big batch of nutritious steel cut oats.

4. Dollop onto waffles.

Best Blueberry Waffles: they’re fluffy, just sweet enough, and dotted with beautiful blueberries.
Fluffy Gluten Free Waffles: how is it possible that these waffles can be gluten free and impossibly fluffy? Magic.
Cornbread Waffles: these cornmeal waffles would be a perfect fit with blueberry sauce! They’re naturally gluten free as well.

5. Get creative.

Put it on our Basic Crepes Recipe with whipped cream.
Blueberry scone, vanilla ice cream, blueberry sauce.
Almond butter toast?

What other ideas do you have? Let us know in the comments below!

Want to freeze blueberries?

Got a lot of berries and want to freeze them? Not sure if you can use frozen berries in a baking recipe? Head to our resource: How to Freeze Blueberries.

This blueberry sauce recipe is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, naturally sweet, and refined sugar free.