This strawberry cordial recipe is a taste of summer in a bottle. Easy to make, the cordial will make your kitchen smell divinely of strawberries as it simmers on the stove.

Strawberry cordial is a delicious way to use up a glut of strawberries, preserving the harvest to enjoy now and in the months to come. It’s great for using up damaged strawberries, just cut off any nibbled parts first.

This recipe is perfect for people without a strawberry patch at home, too. Often supermarkets sell off punnets of strawberries really cheaply when they have overstocked. Grab some bargains and make cordial!

Versatile strawberry cordial

I enjoy strawberry cordial mixed with sparkling water for a refreshing, cooling drink. It is lovely mixed with lemonade or tonic water too. Use it to make fabulous cocktails. Add to prosecco, or sparkling wine of your choice, for a delicious colourful Strawberry Rossini, or pour some into a gin and tonic for a strawberry twist.

Try this sweet fruity cordial drizzled over ice cream. Mix with still water, or into yogurt, and freeze in ice lolly moulds to make popsicles – a cheap and additive-free frozen treat.

Or combine with balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make a fabulous salad dressing.

Other fruits to try

The recipe works for other sweet, soft fruit including raspberries, tayberries and Japanese wineberries. For tarter fruit such as blackcurrants or blackberries, you’ll need to simmer the fruit for longer and may want to add more sugar.

Strawberry cordial recipe

Ingredients

1 kg strawberries, hulled

500 ml water

700g     sugar

2  medium lemons – juice of

You’ll need

clean bottles or jars for storing

sieve lined with muslin

a heavy bottomed pan

Method

1. Wash, hull and chop the strawberries into quarters.
2. Place in a heavy bottomed pan with 500 ml water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. 
3. Simmer for 20 minutes, crushing the fruit to a pulp as it softens. 
4. Remove from the heat, and strain through a sieve lined with muslin, into a large bowl.  Let it drip for 15 minutes or so. Press the pulp gently with a wooden spoon to get as much juice out as possible. 
5. Scrape the strawberry pulp into a clean jar. (see below for what to do with it)
6. Pour the juice into the clean pan. Add the lemon juice and the sugar.
7. Gently warm on a low heat, stirring all of the time, until the sugar has completely dissolved. 
8. Leave the cordial to cool for 15 minutes (unless canning it).
9. Pour into the clean bottles and seal. Store in the fridge when completely cool. 
10. The cordial will keep in the fridge for three to four weeks.

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Ratios for adapting the recipe

This recipe is for 1kg of strawberries, which makes around a litre of cordial. It is easy to adapt the recipe. The ratios are:

for every 100g of strawberries add 50ml water

for every 100ml strawberry juice add 70g sugar

for every 100ml juice add 1 tbsp lemon juice (I always use fresh lemon juice)

Using the pulp

Use the fruit pulp as a compote, add to fruit puddings or mix into yogurt. Add to strawberry cordial ice lollies (popsicles). It lasts for about two days in the fridge, or freeze in a freezer safe container.

Or, add to other fruit when making a smoothie or milkshake.

More recipes

It is elderflower season here in Wales now (early June). Here’s my recipe for elderflower cordial, and other elderflower recipes are here.

Preserving strawberry cordial

The sugar in the cordial acts as a preservative and it will keep for three weeks or so in the fridge. To preserve for longer, pour into freezer safe containers, label and freeze (fine for a year). To make the bottles shelf stable for a year, use heat safe bottles or jars and a water bath. Always follow a tried and tested water bath canning method. (I’ll do a blog post explaining how soon. There’s also information in my book The Productive Garden.)

I mostly use tall Weck canning jars to preserve cordial, such as these and these (affiliate link). Weck jars are available to buy online from many different stores.

I’m not affiliated with Weck! I bought a load of jars, lids, rings and clips directly from Weck over 10 years ago, back then I had to import them, but there are many other suitable containers for water bathing. I chose these because every part is reusable. The key is to always make sure the jars you use are preserving jars, otherwise they could crack or explode!

weck jars

weck jars