Rhubarb and Ginger Chia Jam Recipe

I’m LOVING experimenting with chia jam at the moment. The flavour combos are endless and you don’t have to worry about pectin content! One of my faves in recent weeks has been banana & lime, which was so good (anyone else remember the banana jam that Morrisons sold years ago?! Nobody else seems to remember it and I’m beginning to think I imagined its existence! lol) and of course the classic strawberry was essential to make for PB&Js, but this week I’ve been enjoying two different rhubarb flavours.  Chia seeds are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, which means this jam beats regular jam hands down, and it’s also super easy to make it refined sugar free, yay!

I love anything rhubarb & custard flavoured so I just had to try some of that and we had some ginger loitering around that needed using up and so I made a second jar with that in instead! The rhubarb in the garden has seriously gone crazy in the last couple of weeks so you will probably be seeing some more rhubarb recipes as I figure out how to use it all (I mean, I love a good crumble as much as the next person, but there’s only so much of that you can eat!) 

One of the things I love about chia jam making, apart from the infinite flavour combos, is that you can just make one jar at a time, it only takes about 10 minutes and it’s super easy! It has fast become a staple of my new plant-based diet, and bonus points because the kids eat it too!

If you want your jam to have a lovely pink hue (rather than the kinda ‘swamp thing’ look mine has got going on! lol) then pick the pinkest stalks of rhubarb and don’t use coconut sugar to sweeten, because that turns it brown. You could use xylitol, sweet freedom or stevia (although personally I find stevia a bit bitter) or honey if you’re not vegan.  

If you want to do rhubarb & custard instead of ginger then omit the ginger and use ‘Sweet Freedom Vanilla Syrup’ as your sweetener for the custard flavour (I got mine from Aldi last week, they had a yummy caramel one too!). If you can’t get hold of that then use whichever sweetener you like but add some vanilla bean paste to taste.

Rhubarb & Ginger Chia Jam Recipe (sf, gf, df, vegan) makes 1 jar:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 stalks of fresh rhubarb, chopped smallish
• splash of lemon juice
• 2-4 tbsp of coconut sugar or other sweetener (adjust to taste!)
• 3-4 tbsp chia seeds (I’ve used black but whichever colour will do) 
• 1 inch grated ginger (or cheat and use ginger puree!)

Method:

Pop your chopped rhubarb in a pan with a splash of lemon juice over a medium heat until it has softened to mush, stirring occasionally. 

Once the rhubarb is mushy take it off the heat and stir in your coconut sugar (or other sweetener) and grated ginger and taste test, adjusting flavours accordingly. 

Stir in 3 tbsp of the chia seeds and wait a few moments to see if it’s thickened to your liking, you might need an extra tablespoon of seeds (it will thicken a bit more in the fridge).

Pour in to a sterilised jar and shove in the fridge to cool and firm up further! I keep mine in the fridge, where it will last at least a week (not sure if it will last longer, we apparently eat a lot of jam!)

So there we go, I hope you enjoy your lovely jam! Do you also get excited about chia jam? What’s your favourite flavour combo? Let me know in the comments! 

Also follow me on Instagram if you want to see photos of more of my recipe experiments ❤️ 

Need to use up more rhubarb? Check out my Gluten Free Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble recipe!

See you all again soon, Kirstie xx