You know how there are just some things that go together?  Like combinations that are proven to be an amazing flavor profile or whatever fancy phrase professional food people (aka Chefs) use?  Yeah, strawberries and balsamic vinegar are one of those pairings.

And I very much dislike it.

“Um…. Excuse me, Katie?  What about your recipe today…?”  Just hold on let me finish my thought!

I very much dislike it, until I made this sauce. 

I’m sure you have seen some sort of salad with strawberries and a balsamic vinaigrette or had a strawberry balsamic dressing or had strawberries drizzled with balsamic.  Me too.  And I just didn’t like them.  I like strawberries and I like balsamic vinegar, but when I put them together it didn’t jive with me.  So I just figured my taste buds weren’t meant for strawberries and balsamic vinegar together.

Then the other day I saw an article on some food website that said you should try roasting your strawberries and I was like, “WHY HAVEN’T I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT?!” I mean, I love roasting things!  It’s my go-to cooking move!  As fate would have it, the next day strawberries were on sale at Aldi (all the praise hand emojis) and I picked up a carton or two to experiment. 

The first time I did it, I just roasted the strawberries plain.  They were good but I felt like they could be even better.  I dug into my favorite cooking book, The Flavor Bible: Vegetarian, to see what pairs well with strawberries and what I could create.  Well, of course, one of the first things the book pointed out was STRAWBERRIES + BALSAMIC VINEGAR= HEAVEN ON EARTH. I tried to resist, but I had balsamic vinegar staring at me from my shelf and I gave in.  What the heck.  If I hate it I can always feed it to Adam (sorry hubby, but you’re my human garbage can…. whom I love very much!)

I’m here to tell you: ROAST YOURSTRAWBERRIES WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR! Roasting both those together brought the natural sweetness of the strawberries out and mellowed the acidity from the vinegar and made everything amazing.  Like, want to stick a straw in this sauce and drink it. 

This sauce would be amazing in:

• PB + J sandwiches
• On toast
• On my tea cookies (can confirm…)
• In salads
• As an ice cream topping
• In yogurt parfaits (again, can confirm)
• Mixed in with my sweet potato pudding

Pretty much, you need to make this magical (and super easy) sauce so you can put it on all the things!

Balsamic Strawberry Sauce 

• 1 8 oz carton of strawberries
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 leaves of fresh basil, sliced into thin ribbons

1. Preheat oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.  Rinse and dry the strawberries then slice off the tops and cut the strawberries into quarters.
2. Place the cut strawberries into a bowl and drizzle with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and coconut oil.  Stir and make sure everything is coated then add the cinnamon and stir again.
3. Spread the strawberries out evenly on the baking sheet and drizzle with the remaining balsamic vinegar.  Roast in the oven for 15 minutes and then remove the pan, stir the strawberries, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and let the strawberries cool for 10 to 15 minutes.  Take half the strawberries and half the basil ribbons and either using your blender or an immersion blender, blend until completely smooth.  Add the other half of the strawberries and basil.  If you want a completely smooth sauce, blend again until smooth or you can leave it with big chunks or pulse a few times for smaller chunks*.
5. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks, if it lasts that long!

*I like a completely smooth sauce for dressings and cookie toppings, but slightly chunkier for everything else!