Strawberry Chia Seed Jam
Making homemade jam is so much easier than you think! Normally, when cooking jam, you need pectin to enable the jam to gel—but I’m going to show you how you can use chia seeds instead! The chia seeds bulk up and gel naturally, they easily thicken your jam without any additives. All you need is:
What You Need:
1 lb Organic Strawberries
¼ cup Organic Honey or Agave Nectar
1-2 tbsp Chia Seeds (to your taste)
What To Do:
Wash and hull the strawberries.
Hulling strawberries is super simple if you use a straw, pushing the straw upwards into the strawberry from the bottom pointy end of the fruit. As you push upwards, the straw will remove the center of the strawberry, as well as the leaves up top.
Chop the berries into quarters.
Add the fruit and honey into a medium saucepan over medium heat.
As the berries heat up, they’ll start to liquify. The berries will begin to macerate and break down. Allow the fruit to gently simmer, tasting your jam to adjust the sweetness.
Now it’s time to add in the chia seeds! Stir in 2 tbsp of chia seeds and make sure they’re fully incorporated. You can always add more as you go. Let the seeds cook in the jam for about a minute, and then remove the jam from the heat.
Let your jam sit so that the chia seeds can naturally gel, and turn your fruit into a gorgeous, unctuous jam. This usually takes about 10 minutes. Once your jam has reached room temperature, you can store or serve it. This recipe yields about 2 heaping cups of jam. Store your uneaten jam in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
This is the easiest jam ever. No messing with fickle pectin…and it’s healthy! You know everything that’s in it, and are now free to spread it on anything and everything… Me? I baked up a batch of crescents and am now trying desperately not to eat the entire pan :)
