10 of the Best Strawberry Recipes to Make This Summer
Photo by Maksim Shutov/Unsplash Food Lists recipes
Strawberry season means ripe, juicy berries from mid-May up until the end of June for much of the U.S. In other words, it’s the perfect time to experiment with fruity recipes. Some varieties of the berry ripen sooner than others, but any of them should serve your snacking and cooking needs. Pro tip: Get them from your local farm to guarantee the freshest batches, even if it costs a little bit extra. Just do the bulk of your berry shopping before July.
Here are 10 of our favorite berry recipes to make this season.
Strawberry Jam from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom
Strawberry jam enhances many everyday eats from Greek yogurt to buttered toast. Even better, this particular jam recipe doesn’t contain any pectin, so you won’t need to grab it from the store. Just plop the strawberries into a skillet or pot with sugar and lemon juice and mash them up. After the jam reduces to a thick consistency, put it into containers to serve immediately or store in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Note that you need to sanitize your jars if you intendj to keep them for an extended period of time.
Strawberry Crisp from Belle of the Kitchen
Crisp and cobbler are sibling recipes, except one is crispier than the other. A crisp is lighter and crunchier than its thicker, doughier counterpart. This strawberry crisp recipe suggests using old-fashioned oats with butter and brown sugar for a crisp topping that bakes easily in the oven. It also keeps the ingredients to a minimum, so you can throw it together for a low-maintenance dessert. Just crumble the topping on top of sugar-sprinkled strawberries, and let the oven do the rest.
Strawberry Milk from Drive Me Hungry
There’s more than one way to make strawberry milk, but one Korean method preserves some of the fruit instead of completely pureeing it into syrup. This strawberry milk recipe suggests simmering the mashed strawberries into a compote-like mixture and adding diced fruit so that there’s more to chew on when drinking. You can use frozen berries for the puree, but using fresh strawberries for the diced portion can really make the drink pop.
Strawberry Shortcake from NYT Cooking
Strawberry shortcake might just be the most popular berry-heavy dessert. An ideal shortcake contains three different components: a flaky, buttery biscuit, fluffy whipped cream and sweet strawberries. The New York Times’ strawberry shortcake recipe condenses a complicated process into a three-step task. Once you prepare the biscuit, cream and berries, all you need to do is serve them on top of each other like a three-layer cake.
Strawberry Focaccia from Uncomplicated Chef
Focaccia is a type of thick Italian bread. When it comes to bread-making, you usually need to know how to handle yeast, but this strawberry focaccia recipe uses store-bought pizza dough to cut through the complications. It requires you to bake the berries into the dough to capture some sweetness in an otherwise savory dish that also calls for spices and herbs like garlic and rosemary.
Strawberry Salad from Foodie Crush
You can’t go wrong with a salad. In this strawberry spinach salad recipe, the strawberries contrast with the simple salt and pepper seasoning, marinated chicken, olive oil and balsamic dressing. Strawberries work especially well in spinach and spring mix salads when mixed with salty feta cheese to contrast with their tart, sweet flavor.
Strawberry Wraps from The Pioneer Woman
Salads aren’t the only recipes that can benefit from balsamic dressing. This grilled chicken and strawberry salad wrap recipe combines the flavors from balsamic marinade, creamy goat cheese and sweet strawberries. Just wrap them in your roll of choice (in the recipe’s case, whole wheat). If you want to add a chewy touch to your roll, you can even try the same recipe (or a slightly different one) with rice paper rolls.
Strawberry Sandwich from Just One Cookbook
Have you ever heard of fruit sandwiches? These aren’t the typical savory sandwiches you may be used to. Fruit sandos, as they’re known in Japan, feature fresh fruits like oranges, kiwis and strawberries in a cream-filled sandwich. In this case, we’re going with strawberries. This strawberry-filled sandwich makes a fluffy, filling snack or dessert with juicy red berries embedded in a pillowy whipped cream layer. You can technically make them with any kind of bread, but fluffy milk bread (typically found in Asian bakeries) works best. Pro tip: Cut the crust so the sandwich is as soft as possible.
Strawberry Salsa from One Hundred Dollars a Month
This salsa combines fresh strawberries with spices to turn them into a savory garnish. This strawberry salsa recipe asks you to chop up the strawberries and then season them with salt, pepper and oil. You can even add some balsamic vinegar to taste. It’s a versatile spread you can use with many savory dishes as a dip, marinade or topping. Try it with chips or on top of crostinis for a fancy appetizer.
Strawberry Pizza from Port and Fin
Fruit pizza highlights strawberries’ full range of flavors. In this strawberry pizza recipe, the berries complement sour, creamy goat cheese and crunchy, salty bacon. It also calls for basil, red onion and a balsamic reduction—tons of complex flavors that blend well with each other. The recipe technically asks you to make your own pizza dough, though you can buy already-made dough from the grocery. You can also make this berry pizza with other salty meats like prosciutto or even a properly marinated chicken. All you really need is a cheese, a protein, a vegetable or herb like basil and something to drizzle on top, like olive oil or balsamic vinegar.