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…
That’s such a good idea! I just got a bunch of chia seeds from my mom for my birthday, and I love jam, but not the high sugar content of it. This is just wonderful, thanks!
Do you know how long this might keep in the fridge for – would it be the same as non-chia jam do you reckon?
It’s last a week so far in my fridge and still going strong. I will update when as I go :) I expect 2 weeks or possibly longer.
Oh my God! I want to try this NOW!
Buying blueberries tomorrow. So simple and beautiful.
I love it!
OMG, I might never buy overpriced, organic but still sugary jam again!
Yummy! Sounds great.
That looks so darn yummy! I have been stalking your blog for a while and you have the best recipes!
These jams look amazing! I have been thinking about making a chia jam with all of the amazing fruit that’s in season and you’ve given me a great recipe to try– thanks!
I love making jam! It’s so much healthier than what you find in the store. Do you think this would work with frozen blueberries?
You really are a magical jam genius!
I made mini jars of this today with mini jars of your kitchen sink nut butter to give out as gifts to 3 girlfriends who have birthdays this month. Nothing like a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread with fancy nut butter and jam!
This looks awesome Angela! So magical (and healthy)! And I love that it takes such a short time to prepare!
Oh man. It’s been YEARS since we have used chia seeds. What a great idea!
Oh this jam looks incredible!! I am so excited to try it, it’s not even funny.
I made my own raspberry jam last summer using a traditional recipe and I liked that it was homemade without added ingredients, but I still wished that it was lower in sugar. Berries are sweet on their own – they don’t need it! I definitely need to try your version this summer. :)
Love this idea! Last summer I made blueberry jam – I added a small amount of OJ instead of any sugar. It actually thickened up enough to use for toast. Can’t wait to add chia!
This recipe is awesome! Is it difficult to find chia seeds in stores?
YUM!!! I want that for breakfast tomorrow!
This looked so good, I had to make it tonight! I “cheated” and used frozen blueberries since that’s all I had. Soooo good! Thanks, Angela!
Jena
Hey Jena,
Aw I was wondering if frozen bklueberries would work, thanks for letting me know! Did the cooking time differ at all and did you thaw them before use?
Nope, they were still frozen. I still simmered them for 5 minutes. It probably just took longer for mine to start to simmer…maybe another 5 minutes for that.
This looks lovely! I’m surprised to say I’ve never heard of chia seeds though– where are they from/what’s their history in cooking? And where does one obtain them?
I never would have thought to put chia seeds in my jam, but I bet the consistantcy is perfect!
Gonna! This looks so great. Love blueberries AND chias.