Name: Easy Strawberry Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 pound strawberries; 6 tablespoons maple syrup; 2 teaspoons cornstarch

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

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.

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.

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!

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:

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

This strawberry sauce is…

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