Strawberry Coulis

Strawberry coulis is similar to my strawberry syrup recipe, but it is less sweet, which makes it a better candidate for use in other recipes. I also thicken it a bit with cornstarch to avoid a long cooking time that would dull the flavor and color.

Use the coulis to make strawberry mousse or no-churn strawberry ice cream, or use it on its own as an intensely strawberry-y dessert sauce.

For ease of browsing, you can find all my dessert component recipes in one place. Let’s jump right in.

Strawberry Coulis, At a Glance

✅Skill Level: Beginner
✅Skills: Pureeing
✅Type: Dessert component/sauce
✅Number of Ingredients: 5
✅Prep Time: 10 minutes
✅Cook Time: 10 minutes
✅Yield: 16 oz of puree

Jump Straight to the Recipe

Tasting Notes

Strawberry coulis is nicely balanced and not too sweet. Both the granulated sugar and the white grape juice work together to yield a nuanced sweetness which is nicely balanced by the white balsamic vinegar.

This sauce has medium body thanks to cornstarch rather than reducing the fruit by too much.

Strawberry is especially prone to dulling upon long cooking, so using cornstarch accomplishes two goals:

• It thickens the sauce in a short period of time
• It allows the sauce to stay a lovely, brilliant red-pink as opposed to being a dull red.

If this sounds like a winner to you and you end up making it, please do me a quick favor, if you would.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• strawberries: Fresh or frozen will work since the sauce will be pureed anyway. Substitute any other berry or fruit that would work well as a sauce: blackberry, mango, passion fruit, raspberries, etc
• granulated sugar: The amount of sugar provided is fairly minimal for the number of berries. That’s to ensure that each spoonful packs the maximum strawberry punch possible. If you’re looking for a sweeter sauce, try my strawberry syrup recipe
• white grape juice: The liquid for cooking the berries. Substitute apple juice or a red juice like cran-strawberry. You can also just use water for the purest strawberry flavor. Note you will have to add a bit extra sugar to make up for the sugar you’d lose by subbing water for fruit juice
• white balsamic vinegar: Balances the sauce with a sweet tang. Lemon juice or lime juice would both work as well
• salt: Just a heavy pinch of salt helps to focus all the flavors and keep the coulis from reading as “flat”
• cornstarch: Provides thickening and body without muddying the flavor of the sauce. Use just a couple of teaspoons if using as a plating sauce. Increase the cornstarch if using the coulis as a component in another recipe. The cornstarch helps bind the liquid to minimize any wateriness that might could otherwise happen over time

Note, this is NOT a classic coulis recipe. Coulis is generally a reduction sauce and doesn’t contain white grape juice.

But this recipe is a pureed and strained fruit sauce, so I think coulis is the best name for it. For a classic coulis and a look at the difference between a coulis and gastrique, you can read my post on coulis and gastrique.

Classic ingredients are:

• berries
• sugar
• salt
• lemon juice for balancing

Procedure

This is a very straightforward sauce to make.

Whisk the cornstarch and white balsamic together, and put your strawberries, sugar, white grape juice, and salt in a pan.

Heat over medium heat, and mash the berries as they soften.

Once the sauce is at a simmer, use an immersion blender to puree it right in the pan. Alternatively, use a blender.

Once the sauce is pureed, stir in the cornstarch slurry, and boil for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer to get out all the seeds, and you’re done!

Recipe Variations (Make It Fancy)

Cook the strawberries with half a vanilla bean that you’ve slit open. You could also add some vanilla at the end of cooking.

Even fancier would be to add some black pepper after pureeing. Strawberry and black pepper are an excellent combination.

To bring an herbal note to your coulis, cook the strawberries with a little basil, culinary lavender, lemon mint, or lemongrass.

A Little Strawberry Coulis Q & A

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

A Note About Measurements

My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.

For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.

I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.

This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.

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And that’s it friends. Enjoy the strawberry coulis (and all the goodness you can make with it), and thanks for spending some time with me today.