Sugar-free Mango Jam Recipe | Easy Homemade Mango Jam you’ll love
It’s been more than 2 months starting April 1 this year that I COMPLETELY quit refined sugar. And you might also have known that I ditched processed foods quite sometime ago. However, no matter what health commitments I may have made to myself over the years, sweet flavors have never checked out of my favorite foods. And earlier, while I used to make my fruit jams using a little bit of sugar, I have now resolved not to use it anymore for ANY of my dishes. So here comes my re-invented jam recipe for this MANGO SEASON – My effortless SUGAR-FREE MANGO JAM RECIPE!
This recipe DOESN’T make use of sugar or pectin. Oh well, if you’ve wondered what the role of Pectin could be in making jams, let’s know a little bit about it.
Here’s a quick VIDEO RECIPE that I uploaded on my YouTube channel FITBEWELL RECIPES fairly recently. Subscribe, if you haven’t yet! 😀
What’s about Sugar-free mango jam & Pectin
Pectin is a natural polysaccharide derived from certain fruits; such as apples. This, when heated with some sugar, forms a thick substance that helps you get the signature ‘jelly-like’ appearance & texture of conventional jams. Pectin, though a natural derivative, is commercially available & is mostly used to decrease the need to add more sugar & also reduce the cooking time for the jam.
However, commercial pectin has limited shelf life & a slight difference in the quantity of pectin added can make the jam go lumpy, hard & sticky or even granular. At the same time, the ripeness of the fruit to be ‘jammed’ also has a significant part to play here. And any deviation from all these factors can lead to loose motion, flatulence or stomach ache.
So, to be on the safer & relatively risk-free approach to making jams, I do not use pectin AT ALL.
This simple Sugar-free Mango Jam requires just 4 INGREDIENTS:
- Mango
- Liquid Jaggery (or any unrefined sweetener of your choice)
- Cinnamon Powder
- Lemon Juice
Healthy & Vegan Sugar-free Mango Jam
A simple, healthy & yummylicious mango jam made WITHOUT SUGAR or PECTIN, which is free from preservatives & can last for a good 2 weeks with refrigeration.
Ingredients
- 4 nos. Mango Big, sweet & ripe
- 1-1.5 tbsp Liquid jaggery You can use any organic, unrefined sweetener of your choice
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder
Instructions
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Wash the mangoes well & peel them off their skin.
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Extract all the pulp out of them & discard the pit.
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Blend this pulp into a fine paste in a blender/mixer.
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Take a thick-bottomed vessel or a non-stick pan & pour the blended mango pulp into it.
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Start cooking the pulp over a low flame & stir the pulp a little after 1 minute.
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Add liquid jaggery to it & keep stirring well for another minute. The stirring is to ensure that the pulp doesn't stick to the pan's bottom.
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Now raise the flame to medium & continue to stir constantly till the pulp starts thickening in consistency.
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Add the cinnamon powder & mix well.
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Stir for about another 2-3 minutes & then add the lemon juice. Mix well again.
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Put the flame off.
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The resultant jam should look like this while giving off bubbles.
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Your delicious sugar-free mango jam is ready!
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Let the jam cool to the room temperature & then transfer it to an air-tight glass container.
Recipe Notes
- If you wish to add fine cardamom powder to this jam while cooking, you could gladly do that to suit your flavor preference.
- The homemade cinnamon powder here is added as it renders a naturally sweet taste to the already characteristic sweetness of the mangoes. Since no extra sugar is being added to this jam, cinnamon enhances its signature flavor of sweetness to it.
- Please do not store this jam when hot or into a plastic container as foods like jams & pickles contain a lot of natural acids which react with the plastic & can result in inevidently toxic alteration of the stored food. This can affect your digestion big time.
- I prefer to blend my mango pulp into a puree because I like my jams really smooth & this also reduces the need to cook for a longer time on flame. Nonetheless, you may choose to cut the mango pulp into small cubes or less geometric pieces ;-). But that will require you more more time to cook & the resultant jam may not be as smooth as this one.
About choosing the Mango variety
To make this sugar-free mango jam, I’ve used the Mallika variety of Mango, which is quite readily available along the southern parts of India. This variety is one of those that have a typically some extra sweet taste as compared to the common mango varieties.
The Alphonso variety of mangoes can also play second fiddle here.
So, as long as you select mangoes which are just ripe (not overripe) & do not have too many strings inside, you’re good to go with them.
About using Cinnamon Powder
And if you’re wondering about the cinnamon powder, here’s how I make it. I do not dry roast my cinnamon sticks as I really like the exact fragrance & taste of cinnamon sticks. Therefore, to preserve this preference, I directly grind 5-6 cinnamon sticks (each about half an inch) into a fine powder. After cooling, I transfer it to a tiny, cute container like this one.
And then this powder goes on to become my favorite ingredient to overnight oats, homemade cakes & even ice cream!
Guess what, cinnamon is a fantastic fat-burner spice. Including it into your diet can dramatically improve your metabolism for the better & refine your healthy appetite.
So, how does this sugarless mango jam seem to you? Does it fit into your dimensions of a healthy summer preserve? Do let me know in your comments how it turned out for you, if you try it. I’d love to see your pictures too. 🙂
Until then, Bon Appetit & Happy Summer Feasting! 😀
This is an excellent way to store mangoes. I love them but never thought of making jam. Thank you for this sugarfree recipe. And kudos to you for being sugar free. It takes so much determination ?