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There is no rival for homemade strawberry sauce. It has just 3 ingredients and this is the easiest strawberry sauce recipe. Adding a few spoons of this glossy fresh strawberry topping will make any dessert feel fancier. This is a great recipe to have in your arsenal for entertaining or to make your family’s eyes light up as you spoon it over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
This strawberry topping is completely wonderful over pancakes, waffles, pie, cheesecake, this trifle, you name it! This is our favorite and easiest way to make strawberry sauce. The lemon juice balances the sweetness and makes the strawberry flavor more pronounced. Truth be told, it’s dangerously irresistible stuff – consider yourself warned ;).
We’re using this sauce in our next recipe post so I hope you are all kinds of excited!!
Make-Ahead Tip: You can make this strawberry topping 1 to 3 days in advance, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Easy Strawberry Sauce Ingredients:
1 lb Strawberries, rinsed, hulled and thickly sliced
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice (from 1/2 Lemon)
How to Make Easy Strawberry Sauce:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine sliced strawberries, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice. Place over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. The strawberries will release juice without any mashing required.
2. Reduce heat and simmer 20-23 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Keep in mind sauce will thicken up slightly as it cools and even more after refrigeration.
Pro Tip: Do not blend strawberries before cooking. I have tested coarsely blending strawberries in a food processor and even though they taste great, the color of the sauce was foggy and not glossy as shown in the photos above. We had best results with slicing strawberries by hand.
It really is as good as it looks – bursting with fresh strawberry flavor!
⬇Print-Friendly Strawberry Sauce Recipe:
Strawberry Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Strawberry Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 lb Strawberries, rinsed, hulled and thickly sliced
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice, from 1/2 Lemon
Instructions
How to Make Strawberry Sauce:
- In a medium saucepan, combine sliced strawberries, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Strawberries will release juice without any mashing required.
- Reduce heat and simmer 20-23 min or until sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Keep in mind sauce will thicken up slightly as it cools and even more with refrigeration.
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
I hope this becomes your new favorite strawberry topping. Let me know how you serve your strawberry sauce. Or maybe it’s just you with a spoon in your hand? Remember I called this dangerous for a reason!
Super easy and yummy. I may use a little less lemon juice next time because it was tart to me. But to each their own. Still a great go to.
So glad to hear that, Holly! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Could I can this in a warm bath? We have a lot of strawberries and I want to preserve them for ice cream sundaes rather than just making jam.
Hi Mindy, I haven’t tried canning these for shelf storage so I’m not sure. I think it could work, though!
Do you serve this cold, room temperature or warm for cheesecake?
Hi Dianna! You can enjoy it at any temperature. You can warm it up in a saucepan on the stove if you prefer it warm.
This recipe was so easy and it tastes delicious! I did add 1/2 tablespoon of corn starch to thicken. Turned out great.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Sherry!
Natasha love your website enjoy watching you cook you have a beautiful family God bless you and all that you do
Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Arlene!
Natasha, your cool. I like your style. Are all Ukrainian ladies feisty as you?
Thanks Joe! I’d like to think I’m unique. ha!
Our 40th anniversary is today. We are celebrating with our kids and grandkids. I’m making strawberry shortcake and using this absolutely delicious sauce for it 🙂
Hi Debbie! That’s wonderful. Happy Anniversary! Be Blessed!
It seems easy to make. I’m not that good at cooking, and I like to have some sort of breakmast meal at night, and this seems like a good way to use strawberries from our garden while having something tasty along with a few pancakes or waffles.
I hope you love the recipe, Julian!
So easy to make and super delish. I love it on cheese cake and cottage cheese. Thanks for this just 3 ingredient recipe 😋
You’re welcome, Brigitte! So glad you loved the recipe.
I was skeptical about the amount of juice that the strawberries would produce to make a sauce, but they really did. No extra liquid needed. I cut back the sugar a little bit. It was a PERFECT topping for my dark chocolate brownies.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Neil!
Can’t wait to try this Strawberry sauce. Going to make these for Super Bowl Sunday. For my son’s get together. Thank you so much for your recipes. Been watching for a
You’re welcome, I hope it becomes your new favorite!
I wonder how this works with strawberries that are not very sweet. I tend to use half the sugar for most recipes, but they are usually older recipes like Grandma used to make, it seems they used a lot more sugar back then. Any ideas?
Hi Jeri, using winter strawberries can make the sauce much sourer if the strawberries are not sweet to begin with and in that case, you would use less lemon juice if needed to taste. The lemon juice does help to keep the color more vibrant as well.
Thanks for your response. I used the full amount of sugar and found that the sauce is very sweet, but then again I usually use half the sugar called for in most recipes. It will be perfect over plain yogurt! I may even freeze some. Thanks for a great, easy recipe that’s fun to make!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Hi, I wonder if I can use a frozen strawberries for this sauce ?
Hi! One of my readers reported good results making this with frozen strawberries.
Do i put this on top of the cake first and then the cream or put the cream on first.
Hi Janice! It’s probably best to just add this on top of the cream.
You are amazing ! This sauce is so easy and so delicious. Its a big hit at my house!!
I’m so glad to hear it was a hit, Cindy! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
So good! I made this to top your cheesecake that I made and it was excellent! Everyone loved it, even my husband who doesn’t like strawberries!
I’m so glad it was a hit, Cindy! Thank you!
Hi Nastasha,
Can I freeze this for future use? Wanted to save time for all the last minute things I am making so if I can make this ahead that would be great. Thanks
Hi Rosanna! You can make this strawberry topping 1 to 3 days in advance, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. I have not tested freezing it, but one of our readers wrote in saying it freezes well, “I freeze mine, and it turns out great.” I hope that helps.
I have been looking for this recipe for over 30 years! Reminds me and my husband of our favorite B&B. Had over Belgium Waffles. So easy to make
Aww, that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m all smiles
I really screwed up! I doubled the strawberries and misunderstood about lemon juice. Added a whole lemon instead of 2 tablespoons. So waster almost $10. Any way to salvage this?
Thanks,
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie, just add more sugar to balance out the lemon and tanginess. It should work great with more sugar.
Hi there! I’ve only started cooking/baking in the last few years and I love this recipe. I’ve used this recipe many many times. It’s simple and easy to follow and works. I use the bag of frozen strawberries from superstore, no measuring, just the entire bag (it’s about the right amount). I’ve used this sauce for toppings for waffles and pancakes and even used other berries and used it to top cheese cake (pretty runny for cheese cake but I’m learning).
Today I am making your tres leches cake. I appreciate that your recipes are simple enough a single dad can step through them and have success. Thanks for the videos, the metric conversion, and the simple walk through step by step. Thanks also for often explaining why a certain step is taken so I can actually learn and apply these skills in other recipes that are not as well planned out.
Thank you for the wonderful feedback, Brody! 🙂
So delicious! I had this over pancakes and it was perfect. I made a smaller portion than the recipe, and added sugar by taste.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Veronica!
After you cook the strawberry 🍓, do you then blend it up or what? It shows a tip on not what to do, but nothing if they have to be blended
Hi Karen, we do not blend this sauce. We slice our strawberries by hand and our finished sauce is chunky. I have not tested that but it may work. You may be able to put it through a fine-mesh sieve and stir the puree for a minute or two until you get it to the consistency you want if you do not want this chunky.