What does coulis mean?
A coulis is a thick yet pourable sauce made by puréeing fruit or vegetables and straining the mixture to remove seeds, skins, and fibres, producing a smooth, glossy liquid. In modern cooking the term most often describes fruit sauces — raspberry, strawberry, and mango coulis are menu staples — spooned or piped around desserts such as cheesecake, panna cotta, and ice cream. Savoury versions, notably tomato or roasted-pepper coulis, serve as elegant accompaniments to meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. The word comes from French, ultimately deriving from couler, 'to flow' or 'to strain', which hints at its defining quality: a texture fine enough to flow cleanly across a plate. Treated grammatically as a mass noun, coulis carries connotations of professional technique and refined presentation, and it remains one of the simplest ways a home cook can lend a dish restaurant polish.
nounA thick, smooth sauce made from puréed and strained fruit or vegetables, served as an accompaniment to sweet or savoury dishes.
- A smooth, strained sauce made from puréed fruit, typically served with desserts.
- A similar strained purée made from vegetables (such as tomato or pepper), used as a base or accompaniment for savoury dishes.
"The chef drizzled a raspberry coulis around the panna cotta before serving it."
"She finished the cheesecake with a vibrant mango coulis."
"The roasted peppers were blitzed into a silky coulis to accompany the lamb."
Coulis is normally used as a mass noun and needs no plural. On the rare occasions a plural is required, dictionaries generally give the unchanged form 'coulis'; 'coulises' also occurs but is less common.
"The pastry section prepared two different coulis for the tasting menu."
That glossy red swirl on your dessert plate has been filtering through kitchens since medieval times — 'coulis' comes straight from the French verb couler, 'to flow.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of coulis
Coulis entered English in the early modern period as a borrowing from French, where it referred to a strained cooking liquid or purée. It derives from the Old French verb couler, meaning 'to flow' or 'to strain', which itself traces back to Latin colare, 'to strain or filter'. That same Latin root gives English several other filtering-related words, including colander, percolate, and infiltrate. Originally associated with meat-based gravies and broths in classical cuisine, the term gradually came to denote the fruit and vegetable purées familiar today.
Related word forms
How coulis is actually used
Coulis belongs to professional and aspirational kitchen vocabulary; it signals refinement on menus and in cookery writing. It is usually treated as a mass noun, so it takes singular agreement ('a coulis', 'some coulis'). The word applies to both sweet fruit versions — by far the most common today — and savoury vegetable versions such as tomato coulis.
Easily confused with coulis
Cullen is unrelated — a Scottish town and the name of Cullen skink soup — while a coulis is a strained purée sauce.
A purée is simply food blended to a smooth consistency, whereas a coulis is specifically puréed and then strained to remove seeds and skin, yielding a finer, pourable sauce.