“But I just want peanutbutter and jelly,” She whined. Now, I normally am not a fan of giving into whining, but sometimes when you’re 8, and you eat differently than your friends at school, and it’s the end of the school year and life is chaotic, you just need some peanut butter and jelly.
Wanting a jam alternative that can be spread between two coconut flour pancakes with peanutbutter and then placed in a lunchbox, I tried chia seeds to make it work.
And work it did! Everyone loves this jam. The seeds just remind me of a more seedy jam, like blackberry or raspberry.
This recipe goes together quickly, since it doesn’t need to be cooked. It just sets up in the fridge. I use an immersion blender, but you can use a regular blender if you’d like. Adjust the sweetener to taste.
Chia Seed Jam
1 pound berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 tablespoon lemon juice
In a blender or with an immersion blender, puree berries. Add in honey and chia seeds and mix. Place in a pint mason jar, and allow to sit in the fridge for 4 hours, or longer, as the chia seeds absorb the liquid. Use as regular jam, keeping in the fridge.
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I make one similar to this with strawberries, which I do cook, and a pinch of gelatin, but I found if you grind the chia in a spice grinder you can use the chia flour and it gets rid of the extra seedy texture (which my kids complained about).
Hi Cara,
Thank you for this lovely recipe! I am definitely going to prepare it for my family this weekend. I was worried about the antinutrients in chia seeds. Isn’t it a good idea to soak chia seeds overnight before grinding so that the antinutrients are neutralized.
Thanks!
Divya
I am just wondering if you could use the jelling agent you used in the gummies to make jam?
Cara, do you think this would work with figs? My son can’t have any berries.
Hi Molly, We haven’t tried it with figs but that sounds delicious. If they were fresh and well blended it might work out well! Let us know if you try it :) Katherine