Healthy Strawberry Jam

The point of this Healthy Strawberry Jam is to show you that you can totally make jam without sugar. So even if you don’t have strawberries around you, grab any other fruit around you and let’s make some healthy jam. Mango or pineapple will work well here.

Sugar-Free Homemade Jam

This strawberry jam recipe is sweetened with honey and to tell you the truth, we can’t tell the difference between this jam and jam made with sugar. It is sweet, fruity with a gel-like consistency, just like a jam should be.

And oh, it is also made without pectin. So sugar-free homemade jam for the win!

You guys, 14 days! That’s how long a carbaholic like us has stayed without baking/eating bread or anything with regular white flour. Neither have we tasted white rice nor eaten any sugar. Has it been easy? No! But let us tell you this: we feel great! We enjoy detoxing our body like this every now and then.

We have experimented with all sorts of healthier alternatives to our traditional diet. We have baked with oats, made waffles out of plantains and eaten vegetable salads more times than we can count.

These 14 days have taught us a lot. One is that a life without refined sugar is totally possible.

Another is that you can totally get kids to enjoy healthy food that is non-traditional, Our girls have totally loved the unconventional meals. And one of their favorite things has been this strawberry jam, which has been a good friend on the breakfast table. You can’t even tell that there is no amount of sugar in this.

At first, we were skeptical about trying to make jam without sugar. Will the consistency be right? Will it taste good? Will the taste of honey not overpower it? Ha.

But when we made this jam, we found myself eating the warm jam right out of the pot with a spoon. It is sufficiently sweet. The honey taste is not overpowering at all. In fact, you will think it is regular jam made with sugar. Winner!

Besides, we just had to make something with strawberries because our local grocery store had strawberries for only $1 per pound. So we grabbed a good quantity to take home with us.

Ingredients Needed

To make this healthy strawberry jam, you need:

• Fresh strawberries: Frozen strawberries could work too. You’ll just need to cook them longer.
• Honey: You can sub this with maple syrup.
• Lemon: Fresh lemon juice is important for flavor and the jam-like texture.

3 simple ingredients and jam will be yours! You could add other ingredients, such as chia seeds or warm spices, such as vanilla or cinnamon.

For the full list of ingredients with measurements, check out the recipe card below.

• Yield: 10 servings
• Prep: 10 minutes
• Cook: 20 minutes
• Total: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh strawberries (about 1 kg)
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, from one lemon
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice, squeeze this out of the same lemon you use for lemon zest

Method

1. Rinse the strawberries well then chop off the top part with the leaves. Cut the strawberries into halves or quarters. Place them in a pot. Add in the honey, lemon zest and lemon juice. Toss to combine.
2. Place the pot on medium heat and cook covered for 10 minutes. Open the pot and using the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher, mash the strawberries to break them down a little. Let them cook for another 10 minutes while you stir from time to time until thickened. If your jam is still watery after cooking for 20 minutes total, let it keep cooking while stirring from time to time until it has a jam-like consistency and can coat the back of a spoon. Place in a glass jar to cool then store in the fridge.
3. Enjoy on pancakes, muffins, crepes, bread and more!