Chia jam is super quick and easy to make. It’s sweet, thickened with chia seeds, and doesn’t rely on pectin or sugar to set. In fact, if your fruit is sweet enough, you won’t need any additional sugar at all. Chia seed jam is raw, vegan, grain-free (gluten-free), soy-free, nut-free, and refined sugar-free.
I have been making instant jam from dried fruit for years. It’s hands down the easiest and possibly quickest jam you can ever make.
However, this summer, I’ve picked a lot of raspberries and blackberries. Every year in late summer, whenever I go for a walk or bike ride, I take a glass container with a well-fitting lid and a long-sleeved shirt. The container is so I can pick the blackberries and raspberries that grow in wild profusion in the parks and woods near my home. The long sleeves are to protect my arms from the vicious thorns that guard the fruit.
Wherever you live, chances are wild blackberries are growing somewhere nearby. It’s a remarkably resilient plant. Blackberries and raspberries grow in many unexpected places – along paths, roadside verges, river banks, and forest edges.
Everyone in my family LOVES berries, but you can get tired of them pretty quickly – especially if, like me, you harvest them in fairly large quantities while they’re in season. I always freeze a whole bunch for smoothies, whip up a batch or two of berry ice cream, and make jars upon jars of berry chia jam.
Tips for Making Chia Seed Jam
Ingredients
All you need for this chia jam recipe are four simple ingredients:
- Chia seeds: it wouldn’t be chia jam without chia seeds. Chia seeds come in black and white varieties and are practically flavorless. They are known for their intrinsic ability to form a hydrogel concomitant with moisture retention. In other words, chia seeds absorb water (up to 10 times their weight in liquid!), soften, swell, and gel in the presence of liquid. The feasibility of gel formation increases with increasing seed-to-water ratio – chia seeds form hydrogel at a seed-to-water ratio of 15% or higher. Interestingly, chia seeds form a gel at pH 3 to 12, a partial gel at pH 2, 13-14, and don’t gel at pH 1. So, if you’re adding chia seeds to highly acidic or alkaline solutions, the chia seeds might not always gel properly.
- Fruit: chia jam works with nearly any juicy fruit, fresh or frozen. So far, I have made blackberry chia jam, blueberry chia jam, raspberry chia jam, and strawberry chia jam. If you’re using different fruit than berries, you might need to add slightly more or less chia seeds because different fruits have different amounts of naturally occurring pectin, and their water content is often also different.
- Lemon juice: a splash of lemon juice helps not only with gelling of the jam but also prevents the growth of bacteria during storage.
- Maple syrup: if your fruit isn’t sweet enough, add a sweetener. I like maple syrup, but you can use any sweetener you like.
How to Make Raw Chia Jam
If you’ve ever tried your hand at jam-making, you know that several factors – pectin, sugar, and acid – need to be in perfect balance to achieve a perfectly set jam. Not so with chia seed jam. Here’s how easy it is to make chia jam:
- Mash/blend the fruit. If you’re using juicy berries, add the fruit to a bowl and mash it with a fork. If you’re using harder fruit, such as peaches or cherries, you’ll need to use a blender to purée the fruit. For some texture in the jam, don’t mash the fruit thoroughly/use the pulse function on the blender.
- Mix in the chia seeds. Sprinkle chia seeds over the fruit and stir until well combined. The best ratio of fruit to chia seeds is 2 cups of fruit to 2 Tbsp./24 g of chia seeds. Start with this ratio; if your fruit is very juicy or you’d like a thicker consistency, stir in more chia seeds, 1 tsp./4 g at a time. The chia seeds will absorb the fruit juices and thicken the fruit to a jelly-like substance.
- Stir in the lemon juice and sweetener. Add the lemon juice and maple syrup (optional) and stir. Taste and add more lemon juice or maple syrup if needed.
- Chill. Transfer the chia jam to the refrigerator to thicken, for about 20 minutes.
How to Make Chia Jam without Seeds
The chia seeds will stay visible in the jam after mixing. This isn’t a big deal with darker-colored fruits or fruits with seeds, like raspberries or blackberries, but not everyone likes seeds in their jam. If that’s the case, you might want to make seedless chia jam. It’s a bit of a tedious task to get the seeds out of berries since there are so many of them, but worth the effort if it means everyone gets to enjoy your delicious homemade spread. Here’s the step-by-step process:
- Blend the fruit. Add the fruit to a blender and blend until smooth. This way, you can crush some of the seeds, getting as much of the whole fruit as possible. Even with a high-speed blender, you won’t get a completely smooth purée.
- Strain the fruit. Using a fine sieve, strain the fruit purée into a clean bowl. You’ll end up with the fruit juices in the bowl and the pulp and seeds in the sieve. Using a large spoon, work the fruit through the sieve, leaving only the seeds behind. This is where it all gets a bit boring and messy, to be honest. You have to work the fruit quite a bit and use the spoon on the bottom of the sieve to keep the mesh clear. It’s definitely a time-drain task, but not difficult.
- Mix in the chia seeds. Once you’ve worked out all the seeds, or as many as you can be bothered with, add ground chia seeds to thicken the purée into seedless berry chia jam.
- Stir in the lemon juice and sweetener. Add the lemon juice and maple syrup (optional) and stir. Taste and add more lemon juice or maple syrup if needed.
- Chill. Transfer the chia jam to the refrigerator to thicken, for about 20 minutes.
How to Store Chia Jam
- Refrigerating: transfer the chia jam to an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to 2 weeks.
- Freezing: transfer the chia jam to an airtight container and freeze it for up to 3 months.
How To Use Chia Jam
Chia jam has a slightly different consistency than cooked jam with pectin and sugar – it’s a bit looser and syrupy but not liquidy. It gets a bit thicker after some time in the fridge but will never thicken to quite the same sturdy, sticky consistency of regular jam.
That said, you can use chia seed jam just like you would classic jam. Spread it over toast with peanut butter, add it to your morning yogurt (you can whip up a quick parfait using coconut yogurt, chia jam, and granola), or serve it with pancakes or waffles. If I am out of frozen berries, I often add this chia seed jam to smoothies or swirl it into my morning porridge.
More Jam Recipes
- Instant jam: this raw jam is not only easy and quick – possibly the quickest jam you’ve ever made, but it also has a very deep and intense flavor you’ve probably never tasted before. It’s made entirely from dried fruit – no added sugar or pectin.
If you try any of these recipes, please, leave a comment and rate the recipe below. It always means a lot when you do.
Blackberry Chia Seed Jam
Ingredients
- 2 cups blackberries
- 2 Tbsp. chia seeds
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice or orange juice
- 2 Tbsp. maple syrup (optional)
Instructions
- Mash the blackberries. Add the blackberries to a medium bowl and mash them with a fork. If you like some texture in your jam, don't mash the fruit too much.
- Mix in the chia seeds. Sprinkle the chia seeds over the mashed blackberries and stir until well combined. The chia seeds will absorb the fruit juices and thicken the fruit to a jelly-like substance.
- Stir in the lemon juice and maple syrup. Add the lemon juice and maple syrup (optional) and stir. Taste and add more lemon juice or maple syrup if needed.
- Chill. Transfer the chia jam to the refrigerator to thicken, for about 20 minutes. If the chia jam is not thick enough after that time, stir in more chia seeds, 1 tsp./4 g at a time.
- Store. Leftover chia jam keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. For longer-term storage, freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Recipe Notes
Raspberry Chia Seed Jam (without seeds)
Ingredients
- 2 cups raspberries
- 3 Tbsp. white chia seeds , ground
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp. maple syrup (optional)
Instructions
- Blend the raspberries. Add the raspberries, maple syrup (optional), and lemon juice to a high-speed blender and blend until the raspberries are completely puréed.
- Strain the raspberries. Using a fine sieve, strain the raspberry purée into a clean bowl. You'll end up with the fruit juices in the bowl and the pulp and seeds in the sieve. Using a large spoon, work the fruit through the sieve, leaving only the seeds behind. This is where it all gets a bit boring and messy, to be honest. You have to work the fruit quite a bit and use the spoon on the bottom of the sieve to keep the mesh clear. It took me about 5 minutes to strain the 2 cups/250 g of raspberries.
- Mix in the chia seeds. Once you’ve worked out all the seeds, or as many as you can be bothered with, add the ground chia seeds to thicken the purée into seedless raspberry chia jam.
- Stir in the lemon juice and maple syrup. Add the lemon juice and maple syrup (optional) and stir. Taste and add more lemon juice or maple syrup if needed.
- Chill. Transfer the chia jam to the refrigerator to thicken, for about 20 minutes.
- Store. Leftover chia jam keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. For longer-term storage, freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Thank you for all your amazing recipes, I would like to see chia seeds jam on YouTube, please i look to do jam recipe for my kids, thank you petra
Hi Darin – for sure! The video will be up tomorrow 🙂
Thanks for your inspiring creations! How long would you say this jam lasts in the fridge? And can it be frozen without messing up the texture and consistency?
Hi Lisa – the jam keeps in the fridge for a couple weeks. Since it doesn’t contain any preservatives and hasn’t undergone the proper canning process it must be kept refrigerated. You can freeze the jam no problem for up to 3 months.
Hi Petra. Thank you for sharing this amazing jam recipe. My daughter really love it!!
Yay! So happy to hear that. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your feedback, Nimma! ❤️
Hi, looks delicious!!
Where can I find this storage containers?
Thank you
Hi Helen – I got them on Amazon. There’s lots to choose from. Here are the ones I got:
12-pack, 16 oz: https://nutritionrefined.com/mason-jars-16-oz
16-pack, 4 oz: https://nutritionrefined.com/mason-jars-4-oz
Thank you, I appreciate your answer, and love your recipes!!
Thank you Helen!! ❤️
Hi Petra! Can the jam go through the canning (boiling) process after placing it in the jars? (for longer term storage in the pantry) Have you tried it? If yes, how well does it keep it’s flavour and texture? Thank you!
Hi Maggie – I wouldn’t recommend canning chia seed jams. The first reason is acidity. Acidic foods with a pH of 4.6 or lower prevent the growth of c. Botulinum, which can produce the deadly botulism toxin. Most fruits are naturally high in acid, which is why they are safe to can on their own and in a jam. However, chia is a low-acid ingredient, and so by adding it, you are raising the pH level, potentially creating unsafe conditions. The second reason is density. Chia seeds gel as they absorb juices/water from the fruit. This causes to jam to thicken and it is harder for temperatures in the jar to consistently reach the level of lethality for those bacteria during the water bath canning process. More liquid jams, by contrast, heat more evenly.
Thank you for letting me know! That is so useful!
I was thinking of making a strawberry jam, since I got some fresh fruit from the market, what is the recommended strawberry to chia ratio? For example, for 100g of strawberries, how much chia seeds should I use? I see that it’s different for the different types of fruits (blackberries and raspberries listed above) and it’s not a fixed ratio. Is the sweetener necessary? If it’s omitted (or I add less), would it change the fruit:chia ratio? Thank you once again!
Hi Maggie – the reason it’s different is that the first recipe is with whole chia seeds whereas the second one is with ground chia. The typical ratio is 2 cups of fruit (including strawberries) to 2 Tbsp. whole chia seeds. The sweetener is not necessary at all, and omitting it shouldn’t change the ratio. I am sorry for the late reply, but hopefully it still helps!
It absolutely helps, thank you!
Awesome! You’re very welcome 🙂
im wanting to make apple butter using chia seeds & monk fruit sugar, do you have any insight?
Hi Carlo – I haven’t tried making apple butter with chia, so I can’t advise you on the quantity of ingredients. However, I would probably use a slow-cooker (if you have that option), and let the apples, chia seeds, sweetener, and spices simmer for a few hours. I would use whole chia seeds and blend the apple butter once done cooking.
i like the idea of a crock pot. but, what does long term cooking do to chia? would it be better to cook the apples monk fruit and whatever else sparks my interest. and then add the chia when its close to being done? ALSO im not a huge fan of the whole chia in fruit, im sort of ok with it in a creamy pudding, almost like a tapioca thing. my issue arises from ive never been able to get it to fully hydrate in the center. so i would be adding ground. from looking at your recipe, you add more ground than whole. why is that?
Hi Carlo – great questions. You can totally cook chia seeds in a slow cooker. I have made a similar recipe with pears and cooked them with whole chia seeds for about 10 hours. You can stir the chia seeds into the apples at the end of cooking as well. The chia seeds will simply absorb the juices apples release. You’re right – whole chia seeds will never really lose their texture. They will hydrate, but won’t completely break down. The reason I added more ground chia was that the raspberries were really watery (compared to the blackberries). I should test how strong of a binder whole chia seeds vs ground chia seeds are.
Hi Petra…I’m worried about the nutritional value of the seeds after heating since jam requires very high temperatures. How can I make the jam and still preserve the nutrients?
Hi Prisca – you don’t necessarily have to preserve the jam. You can store it in the freezer (see the instructions in the recipe box). You’re right that boiling chia seeds for a long time at high temperatures can degrade their omega-3 content. Cooking chia seeds for short amounts of time, on the other hand, won’t compromise their nutritional properties in any way.
Hello. Can you make jam too? Thanks very much!
HI Sven – do you mean jam without chia seeds?