Raspberry Chia Jam
Before embarking on my healthy eating journey, I never thought to make my own homemade jam. It just seemed like too much of a faff and when you have endless options at the supermarket, why bother? But how amazing would it be to be able to make your own healthy homemade jam that’s sugar free, mostly fruit and takes only 5 minutes to make? Seems to good to be true, right?
Chia jam is another one of those amazing concepts I discovered in the past couple of years that makes healthy eating so easy and so much fun. You can make all different types of jam using the same basic recipe.
How to Make Raspberry Chia Jam
The basic formula to make chia jam is:
Fruit + chia seeds + sweetener + 5 minutes of your time = Amazing healthy jam!
The reason this works is because chia seeds have gelatinous properties – they absorb liquid and so act as a binding and thickening agent. So they absorb the liquid from the fruit turning it into a ‘jelly’. I like to cook my fruit/berries for a few minutes in a pan to turn them into a sauce, then I take the pan off the heat, mix in the chia seeds and sweetener and leave the chia seeds to work their magic!
My favourite fruit to use to make jam is raspberries. I buy frozen raspberries from Tesco and keep them in the freezer for when it’s convenient. It’s so much cheaper to by frozen berries and of course you don’t have to worry about them going off after a couple of days.
The only problem with chia jam is that it won’t last anywhere near as long as regular jam because of the lack of sugar, but for me that’s not really a problem at all. Since the jam is mainly made up of fruit, I eat tablespoons of it at a time. Raspberry chia jam doesn’t last a week in my household!! Also, you can always freeze leftover chia jam if you don’t think you’ll be able to finish it within a week.
Raspberry Chia Jam
Ingredients
350g frozen raspberries
3 tbsp sugar or coconut sugar
4 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Heat a small pan over a medium heat. Pour in the raspberries and lemon juice and cook for a few minutes until the raspberries start to soften.
Start mashing the raspberries with the back of a wooden spoon to turn them into a ‘sauce’ like consistency.
Once you’ve mashed all the raspberries, take off the heat and add the sugar and chia seeds.
Leave to cool down then transfer into a jar/container and place in the fridge to set for an hour or two.
Enjoy!
I love chia jam! A tip is, if you want to make it raw, is to thaw the berries and then ‘crush’ them with a fork (or something) and them mix it with swetener and chia seeds. Just found your blog, it’s amazing!
Thank you for the tip Sandra! I know some people make it by blending the berries with the chia seeds to make a smooth jam. I must try it next time 🙂
I am not a jam person but this post + your jammie dodgers + your photos have me wondering if I should reconsider. Well done 😀
Back to the jam – what is the shelf life?
To make it last longer, you can freeze it in smaller pots. When I bought jam and once opened, stored in the fridge and it goes mouldy. I transfer to smaller jars and freeze. Take out the freezer the night before to leave it in fridge to defrost and its tastes the same. The chai jam frozen tastes the same as well.
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Hi! How many cups of jam is that? Thanks!