Hello, welcome to my blog! It’s officially the strawberry season! 🌸🍓
I love all the activities I can do to savor the best of the season, including eating seasonal fruits and vegetables. Seasonal produce is more nutritious, tastes better, is cheaper, and is abundant during the season.
Introduction to Strawberry Cheong Recipe
I was just in Seoul, Korea, for my brother’s wedding, and it was already spring there. There was the Cherry Blossom Festival, and it was warm, sweet, and beautiful. One of the best things about spring in Korea is the seasonal fruits and vegetables available everywhere in the spring. And among them is the strawberry. You can do countless things with strawberries, but I love making a strawberry cheong.
Strawberries in Season
If you are ready to make strawberry cheong, that’s so amazing! This is a recipe that pops up in my head every strawberry season. Strawberry seasons differ from country to country. Strawberries naturally ripen from spring to the peak of summer worldwide. However, due to the availability of greenhouse cultivation, they are now available in the winter as well.
In Norway, strawberries are generally available from late June to early August. In Korea, the strawberries used to be in season in June. However, now, with greenhouse cultivation, the strawberries are available from December to May. There are many seasonal menus featuring strawberries in Korea during the spring.
Strawberries in season, or any fruits in season, are usually riper, tastier, and have more nutrition.
So if you are in the season for strawberries, get your jar, and let’s make a strawberry cheong!
Strawberries remind me of spring!
Norwegian Strawberries in Season for Cheong
I made my strawberry cheong with strawberries from Ekeberg Myhrene, Norway. Norwegian strawberries are one of the best strawberries I’ve ever had in my life. The strawberries from this Ekeberg Myhrene farm, in particular, have such beautiful, sweet strawberry scents. I love them!
Health Benefits of Strawberries
1. Vitamin C Content
Berries are one of the most nutrition-dense fruits on the planet. Among berries, the strawberry is a rich source of vitamins and anthocyanins. In 100 grams of strawberries, there are 99.00mg of vitamin C, which is 3 times more than in a clementine and 10 times more than in apples.
You can eat seven to ten strawberries a day, and you will meet the recommended daily intake of vitamin C. Vitamin C maintains skin elasticity and reduces skin damage caused by ultraviolet rays. It is also effective in reducing freckles and blemishes. It has excellent antioxidant properties and helps prevent cell aging.
2. Exceptional Nutritional Value
According to a study about strawberries and human health, strawberries are more than a fruit packed with vitamin C!
Strawberries not only have a lot of vitamin C and antioxidants, but they also have a lot of micronutrients, such as minerals, folates, and phenolic compounds. These all contribute to overall human health, involved in cellular metabolism and cellular survival.
How to Make Strawberry Cheong
1. Prepare strawberries, sugar, and salt.
You will also need a clean jar to store strawberry cheong.
To make cheong, you can use either fresh strawberries or frozen ones. I love using fresh strawberries for their vitamin C content, especially during the strawberry season. But you can use frozen strawberries during the off-season!
Here, I made two strawberry cheongs using fresh strawberries and frozen strawberries to show you all.
2. Cut the strawberries into small cubes.
The smaller, the better. But we will mash them using a wooden spoon later, so it’s okay to have irregular sizes.
3. Put strawberry bits and layer sugar on top.
With many other cheong, using organic brown sugar brings out the deep flavor of strawberries. However, with strawberry cheong, I like using white sugar so the sugar doesn’t hinder the soft strawberry flavors.
4. Finish layering the strawberries and sugar.
You can see that the sugar on the bottom is already starting to melt! Oh my, the sweet scent of sugar and strawberries is heavenly. I hope you can come over and smell this!
5. Top it off with a sugar layer.
Make sure you top it off with a layer of sugar. It helps the cheong to be processed quicker, and prevents mold from appearing on top.
At this step, you can also add allulose syrup on top to make it more liquid from your strawberry cheong. In Korea, we use allulose syrup (also called fiber syrup) to make cheong sweeter in a healthy way. I like using syrup like Monkshushu Allulose syrup to sweeten without sugar or calories!
6. Using a wooden spoon, press down the strawberries.
It is important to use a wooden spoon for making cheong. Using metals or other synthetic material tools can hinder the fermentation process or change the flavor of the cheong.
7. I am done with two jars of strawberry cheong!
The one on the left is with frozen strawberries, while the one on the right is with fresh strawberries. Do you see how much strawberry bits have shrunk? Now you can store it in the fridge.
A Key Ingredient for Cheong
Of course, using fresh and nice fruits is the key ingredient for making a cheong. But aside from that, the next key ingredient is sugar!
Using high-quality organic sugar like this will determine the final result of the cheong. Great sugar can not only preserve and ferment better, but also taste better! Not only that but using organic sugar is a great way to save our planet. There are a lot of pesticides used in growing regular sugar crops…
Let’s get some great organic cane sugar for taste, preservation, and the planet.
Tips for a Great Strawberry Cheong
1. Use Fresh Strawberries
I love using frozen fruits and vegetables, but save your frozen strawberries for something else! Strawberry cheong is a way to preserve strawberries, so please use fresh strawberries for this recipe. As I discussed the health benefits of strawberries above, strawberries have lots of vitamin C. Making strawberry cheong can preserve the vitamin C content. Jams, syrups, and frozen strawberries don’t have that. So I like using fresh strawberries over frozen ones, especially during the strawberry season.
2. Store In the Fridge
This strawberry cheong recipe doesn’t have lots of sugar or salt, and you don’t boil it to have less water content as you would with making jam. So this strawberry cheong doesn’t have as long a shelf life as other preserves.
Please store your strawberry cheong in the fridge, where it’s dark and cold, for up to a week.
Use your strawberry cheong in many other dishes, like my strawberry latte recipe, or as a topping on ice cream or bingsu!
3. Use for Mocktails or Cocktails
This is a way to use cheong in your drink… but with a little more fun! Use strawberry cheong for your cocktails, like strawberry daiquiri or virgin strawberry daiquiri (my favorite!)
Now let’s get started with making some sweet, fresh, juicy, and fragrant strawberry cheong!
Strawberry Cheong Recipe | For Korean Desserts and Drinks
Strawberry Cheong Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Take all the fresh strawberries and wash them.
- Dab water out of the washed strawberries.
- Cut the strawberries into small cubes.
- Put the strawberry bits into a disinfected glass jar. Layer it with sugar. Repeat the process for all the strawberries and the sugar.
- Using a wooden spoon, mash the strawberries. Add salt now. Mix everything well. Make sure there are no air bubbles in the jar.
- It can last up to seven days in a refrigerator.
- Add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the mashed strawberries for a fresh taste.
- You can also add allulose syrup to have more strawberry syrup in the cheong. See my recommendation above.
Summary of a Strawberry Cheong
I hope you found this strawberry cheong recipe interesting and helpful! I love strawberries in season. I want to put strawberries in all my drinks and desserts. It’s like the best spring activity for me. Make a jar of strawberry cheong today. Use it to make fresh and fragrant strawberry lattes or as toppings! Then enjoy summer!
Strawberry Cheong for Strawberry Latte
Strawberry Latte Recipe | Inspired by Starbucks Strawberry Latte
Now that you have your strawberry cheong, read this blog post to learn about the strawberry latte recipe! It is so easy to make and so delicious. As I call it, it’s a spring in a cup. A strawberry latte is a concoction that is so enchanting…
I fell in love with the strawberry latté at Starbucks, so I had to make it at home so I could drink gallons of it! Learn the fresh strawberry latte recipe here.
Taste of a Strawberry Latte
It might take a little more effort to make a strawberry latte than you would with strawberry milk, but it’s worth it. When you sip a strawberry latte, you taste the sweet oat milk with a blend of sweet strawberry pulp. Then you have the fresh, fragrant, lightly sour strawberry chunks in your mouth, mixed with sweet strawberry milk.
A Bit More About Cheong
Cheong is a Korean preservation method that mixes sugar with fresh fruits, often mashed.
Unlike jam, where you need to cook the fruits, you use fresh fruits to preserve with Cheong. That makes the fruit cheong taste fresher but lasts shorter than a jam. It’s also different from syrup, as you would let the sugar and fruit mix ferment when making Cheong.
We call Cheong a “fruit extract” in Korea.
So, are you excited to make some strawberry cheong? I shared how to make strawberry cheong in the recipe below, so keep reading! Other than strawberries, there are several popular cheong varieties in Korea.
How to Make Cheong Syrup | With Any Fruits and Vegetables
Learn how to make cheong syrup, a delicious, healthy, and raw Korean syrup. You can make it with any kind of fruit and vegetable with expert tips! Learn more.
Other Cheong Recipes
Apple Cheong Recipe | How to Make Apple Syrup
Apple cheong is a Korean raw apple syrup that is packed with sweet and tart flavors. Make apple cheong with any kind of apple with this recipe. Learn more.
Raspberry Cheong | How to Make Korean Raw Raspberry Syrup
Raspberry cheong is a raw Korean syrup. It is packed with fresh raspberry flavors, scents, colors, and nutrients! Learn this versatile raspberry cheong recipe.
Raw Black Cherry Syrup Recipe | All About Cherry Cheong
Learn how to make an easy, raw, homemade cherry syrup that is packed with flavors and nutrients! Using the Korean Cheong method, this is a healthy syrup.
Are you a strawberry lover?
Are you crazy about strawberries as much as I am? Well, then, check out my other recipes that have strawberries.
Strawberry Bingsu | Almond Milk Ninja Creami Recipe
Try this refreshing Korean frozen dessert, strawberry bingsu! Healthy and delicious with juicy strawberries, learn this simple almond milk Ninja Creami recipe.
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