Before we left for our trip, I found myself with a couple pints of blueberries and a few spotted bananas to use up. I’ve been meaning to make my strawberry chia seed jam for a while now, so I ended up adapting my recipe using blueberries, all-natural sweetener, and a touch of vanilla. It turned out lovely and was ready in 20 minutes flat!
This is the strawberry chia seed jam that I made a couple years ago:
Chia seeds are magic. I love using them as thickeners in all kinds of foods from homemade jam to vegan overnight oats to pasta sauces.
This strawberry chia seed “jam” is a tasty filling for my Healthy Strawberry Oat Squares! You can use any kind of filling that you like in these oat squares. They remind me a lot of a healthy nutri-grain bar.
This is not a traditional jam recipe by any means, but then again I’m not one for following traditions all that often when it comes to food. Instead of using white sugar, I used maple syrup to lightly sweeten the berries. The maple and vanilla extract do a great job of bringing out the flavours in the blueberries without overpowering them. Chia seeds thicken the mixture nicely while adding a tasteless burst of nutrition in every bite.
If you’ve got 20 minutes, you can make this jam. It’s a snap. All you do is add blueberries and a touch of maple syrup into a pot. Bring it to a low boil and then reduce it to simmer for about 5 minutes or so. Then stir in the chia seeds and simmer it for another 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently until it’s as thick as you desire.
Before adding the chia seeds, the blueberries will be quite watery.
Have no fear chia is here!
After adding in the chia seeds and cooking the mixture down, it thickens up beautifully! Hence, the name – magical jam. You won’t believe your eyes how thick this gets. Thanks to the chia seeds, we’re also pumping up the jam with all kinds of healthy omega fats, iron, fibre, protein, magnesium, and calcium. Who knew jam could be so healthy?
Enjoy this on toast, oatmeal, vegan overnight oats, thumbprint cookies, tarts, in smoothies, and so much more. Also, feel free to try this out with any seasonal fruit you wish.
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Magical Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam
Yield
1 cup
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Adapted from my strawberry chia seed jam.
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh blueberries
- 3-4 tbsp pure maple syrup, to taste (or other liquid sweetener)
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions
- In a medium-sized non-stick pot, bring the blueberries and 3 tbsp of maple syrup to a low boil. Stir frequently, and reduce heat to low-medium to simmer for about 5 minutes. Lightly mash the blueberries with a potato masher or fork, leaving some for texture.
- Stir in the chia seeds until thoroughly combined and cook the mixture down until it thickens to your desired consistency, or about 15 minutes. Stir frequently so it doesn’t stick to the pot.
- Once the jam is thick, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Add more maple syrup to taste if desired. Enjoy on toast, English muffins, oatmeal, vegan overnight oats, oat bars, tarts, cookies, banana soft serve, smoothies, and more. The jam should keep for at least a week in an air-tight container in the fridge.
A breakfast sandwich sounded like a good idea.
Banana slices, sunflower seed butter, and blueberry jam all sandwiched in a toasted English muffin….I couldn’t wait a second longer.
*Poof*…it was gone just like a magic trick.
~~~
We’re off for our flight back home this morning! I think my first meal back will be banana bread oatmeal with blueberry jam & sunbutter to top it all off…yum. And then about a week’s worth of salads because I kinda got off track with the salad-a-day challenge a bit. Whoops.. This last week of June is going to be a leafy one…
chia seeds truly are magical, aren’t they? i am definitely pinning this to make later this week!
I can’t wait to try this, I am on my last jar of homemade blueberry jam from last week and was wondering how i could make it more “naturally” so this is perfect timing! I am 8 months pregnant and have been cutting out a marjority of my processed foods, meat and sugar and boy do i feel good! Needless to say your blog has been a blessing for me over the past few months so THANK YOU!
Thank you Sara! Congrats on your pregnancy :)
This looks heavenly. You continue to amaze me with your creativity using Chia seeds. Thank you so much.
This looks delicious- you just can’t beat chia seeds! Now I want to try this in a blueberry pie-ish dessert. :)
Chia seeds make everything better! I will have to add this to my list of recipes to make for brunch one day.
I too love chia seeds and sneak them into almost every dish! Haha :) But this is such a great way of using them, let a lone sounds and looks amazing! Thanks for sharing.
I completely forgot about chia jam! This looks so good. I just picked up a bunch of peaches that would make a rocking’ jam… Maybe with some ginger?
Peach ginger sounds scrumptious. One of my faves is peach-banana. Fig is also an eye-roller- and naturally sweet. Just add a touch of lemon for the contrast. Oh, yum!
Yes please! I love jam, and this is PERFECT for making it more nutritious! I am excited about making this with raspberries.
how have I not made overnight oats yet this summer?!? Special weekend breakfast with some yummy jam! Can’t wait. Have a beautiful day!
How long does this keep while refrigerated? Normal jam seems to last quite awhile, is it similar?
It has lasted 1 week in my fridge so far and its still going strong. I would expect 2+ weeks, but I will update the recipe when I know.
This looks amazingly delicious! I AM going to try this soon… i just need to get my hands on some berries! :)
Oh my gawsh this is the BEST idea ever. Enjoy your flight home!
Yum… I feel like this jam is a requirement in my life!!
YUM! Such a good way to use chia seeds! And that breakfast sandwich looks out-of-this-world ridiculous! I’m thinkin’ I’ll have to crank out the recipe and a copy-cat sandwich of yours for breakfast tomorrow.
Hope you enjoy it!
So simple and sounds so delicious!
There’s a blueberry u-pick farm close to where we live & I’ll be taking my kids there this week. This is a great recipe to do after our little excursion. I too, love those little amazing chia seeds!
Hey Angela! I made some jam yesterday ( little redberries i do not know the name in english) and it is sooooo liquid. Do you think i can reheat it and add the chia seeds then? I might just try it and see what will happen. Thanks for the idea!
Yes I think you probably could try that. It thickens things quite well.
What a great recipe to have for the season of summer. I know for fact I’ll need to get rid of some berries at some point and fast too! you weren’t kidding, this looks so easy and hello…very delicious too!
oh yes, that would definitely qualifiy as magical! it looks so delicious! yummmm!
I’m so excited to have seen this – chia seeds for thickener – brilliant :) And, I’m about to make plum jam today with plums from our trees. Great photos!