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…
Great recipe!! Homemade jam is just the best! This looks divine and your pictures are stunning!
Can you think of any tropical fruits to make this with? I don’t have strawberries or blueberries at my disposal!
banana and mango? haha. It probably wouldn’t be quite the same with banana in there though.
But have you ever heard of Monkey Butter? It’s banana, pineapple and coconut and sugar. Sounds potentially delicious and in need of health-ifying!
No I haven’t but it sounds interesting!
wow… all of your creations always look so darn delicious!
This looks delicious! I love the texture of chia seeds. Have you tried the chia kombucha yet?
No I haven’t but that sounds right up my alley :)
This looks amazing! I make the Strawberry Chia Jam from Brendan Braziers book and slather it on everything from buckwheat pancakes to homemade biscuits (and yes – I sometimes eat it directly from the jar with a spoon!). Looking forward to trying the blueberry variety. I love your blog Angela. Keep the great recipes coming!! Excited for your recipe book!
Angela,
This looks delish! I wanted to tell you my friends and I have been doing the salad a day challenge for June. We even started our own facebook page where we post our pictures and share our recipes. Love it!
Glad to hear that Sue!
This looks SOOO delicious! It also looks rather easy to make!!
This looks devine!!! Just text myself the recipe! I am doing before the weekend for sure!!
I sent this recipe to my mom and she suggested replacing the syrup with dates. Apparently if you soak fresh dates for a few minutes then liquidise them into sweet paste it’s a great alternative to sugar.
Angela what do you think?
Great minds think alike…I was thinking about trying a date version too. I can’t see why it wouldn’t work!
I use soaked-dates in my strawberry chia jam. I soak them overnight, then drain and rinse. They last in the fridge, in a sealed container, for about a week. I use them to sweeten my morning smoothies as well!
I’m going blueberry picking this weekend, so this is going to be a perfect way to use up all the fresh berries!
I am going to make this for my mother. It looks delicious, and I love how there aren’t many ingredients involved.
Smart, smart, smart!! MAKing….<3
All I have to say is that you are amazing. :-)
And I’ve been doing really well with the salad-a-day challenge and I feel better, my clothes fit better, someone at work actually asked if I was losing weight…wonderful! Thank you so much for the motivation to make myself healthier!
Just got done making this! Amazing! I may try making it a bit thinner and using it as a pancake topping, yum. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe.
A pancake topping is a great idea :) Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi!
Question on your strawberry bars. When you say reserve 1/2 cup of the mixture is that before or after you at the liquids? Do you reserve half of the dry then add the liquid to the remainder or mix the liquid into all of the dry then reserve half a cup. Just curious!
Thanks!
Sarah
Hey Sarah, It’s after mixing everything. You reserve half of it so you can sprinkle it on top before baking. Does that make sense?
I have never tried using chia seeds in anything but I think this recipe convinced me! I really love jam but I am always wary of the sugar content and preservatives in most store bought varieties. Jam always seemed more life a sweet treat but not anymore with this recipe!
Seriously Angela, you are so creative in the kitchen!! I can’t wait until your book comes out!
Just curious are you still doing the newsletter thing?
Wow, this is such an answer for me! I love making jams and jellies, but just recently cut out sugar (and gluten/dairy/meat/corn) completely and have been thinking about ways to make jam more health-conscious. Thank you for the inspiration!
I just made this with blueberry/blackberry combo and you are a genius. I’m trying it with fresh peaches from my farmers market next.
Thanks Angie! Makes sense.
Genius! Making this today :)