Quick and Easy Chia Jam

A healthy, quick and delicious alternative to store-bought jam which is ready in no time.

Healthy chia jam with peanut butter on toast — Homemade Chia Jam

After a quick trip to the supermarket (just to buy some tomatoes) I found myself unpacking a full shopping bag:

1 kg of fresh strawberries,
a punnet of reduced raspberries (to freeze),
2 bunches of bananas (because one can never have too many!),
4 nectarines,
a lime
2 slabs of my favourite dark chocolate
and thankfully I did not forget the tomatoes.

This seems to be a reoccurring thing...1 item on the shopping list = a full shopping bag!

In my defence the tomatoes are right next to the fresh fruit, how can I not have a quick peak at the fruit section?!

And the dark chocolate, well, I had to stock up our chocolate stash.

Since I bought a whole kg of fresh strawberries I thought it would be okay to sacrifices some of them for a small jar of chia jam.

HOMEMADE VS STORE-BOUGHT

Making your own jam is so much healthier than store-bought jam as you can control the added sugar. Plus it tastes so delicious! This is a very quick and very easy homemade jam, which can be made with nearly any juicy fruit - Strawberries, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, apricots, you name it!

This quick and easy jam is made with only 3 ingredients:

fresh or frozen fruit, such as berries
chia seeds
lemon juice

In just a few minutes you can have a fresh batch of jam perfect for fresh bread, on a slice of toast, pancakes, scones or to add to your oats.

Chia seeds are nutrient dense seeds and are referred to as a superfoods. Read more about the benefits and its nutritional content here.

QUICK & EASY STRAWBERRY CHIA JAM

In just 10 min you can have a delicious nutritious batch of chia jam.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of strawberries, chopped
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp maple syrup/ agave syrup (optional)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Boil the fruit on medium heat until it breaks down and becomes juicy and soft.
You can mash the fruit with a potato masher or a fork if you prefer the jam less chunky. I left my rather chunky as I prefer big pieces of strawberries.
Remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients.
Let it sit for a few minutes before transferring it into a glass jar.
Enjoy!