Healthy sugar free Strawberry jam recipe | No-pectin, Vegan Homemade Strawberry jam
It’s quite the season of strawberries in India now. What is your favorite indulgence with strawberry? Well, for me and our daughter, it’s been strawberry milkshakes, ice-creams and strawberry jams (which is rarely available in the Indian supermarkets. By the way, THAT is NOT the reason why I decided to make my own jam!) Here, I’ll be showing you the easiest recipe to make a healthy and tasty batch of sugar free strawberry jam at home.
If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you may have known that it’s been close to a year that I completely quit refined sugar. While that is true, you can know more about why I quit processed foods, like years ago. And as most of you are aware, any fruit jam-making process plainly means that fruits need to be caramelized with sugar. Or any other sweetener for that matter.
You can also check out the below quick video recipe to make the Strawberry Jam too.
What’s about this NO-pectin version of Sugar-Free Strawberry jam?
Strawberries have this characteristically sweet and sour flavor. And the amount of sweetener would largely depend on the sweetness of the strawberries you’re using. In that sense, therefore, I do not use the sweetener and strawberries in a fixed ratio.
So, I’d entirely leave it up to your preference here. This recipe for making sugar free strawberry jam without any pectin or preservatives is what you can use as a guideline in terms of the method.
I generally like to consume strawberries in a sweetened version. But since I quit refined sugar last year, how did I change my list of ingredients that went into the jam-making process?
The usual sweeteners that I use for making most of my fruit jams are jaggery (or powder), brown rice syrup or liquid jaggery.
Why HONEY isn’t an ideal sweetener for making this sugar free strawberry jam?
Nevertheless, if you talk about using honey to be added as an ingredient to making jam, which involves heating and boiling, here’s an issue. Honey has toxic effects upon the body when heated. Even Ayurveda says so. I, however, discovered this fact a little later in my life. So you better skip using honey as a jam sweetener!
So, here, I mostly go for powdered or grated jaggery/ brown rice syrup or liquid jaggery (which is popularly called ‘Joni Bella’ in Kannada.) Liquid jaggery is prepared from sugarcane juice being boiled to a certain consistency. I personally have been buying the Jivabhumi brand for liquid jaggery. You can either buy that or any other brand as long as you trust it to be organic and free from any chemicals masked under confusing names.
Liquid Jaggery EXACTLY resembles honey in terms of its consistency. However, it usually has a little darker hue to it as compared to the color of honey.
You may want to see this recipe for Sugar-free Mango jam where I’ve written about about the role of PECTIN in making jams and how to modify a jam’s recipe to skip Pectin altogether.
Now, here’s how you can easily make this absolutely delicious Sugar free Strawberry jam at home that can last in your fridge for at least 45-50 days, is VEGAN and free from preservatives.
Vegan, No-Sugar, No-Pectin Homemade Strawberry Jam
This easy recipe for homemade Strawberry jam is vegan, free from any added preservatives, contains no refined sugar, pectin or edible colors. Upon refrigeration, the jam can easily last for 1.5 months.
Ingredients
- 400 grams Strawberries Washed well & each into halves
- ½ tbsp Lemon juice Freshly squeezed. You can add small pieces of lemon rind too.
- ¾ cup Liquid Jaggery
Instructions
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Put the cleaned & halved strawberries into a blender jar & blend well. However, it's okay if there are still some blobs of strawberries that didn't get ground into the puree. This non-uniformity can actually enhance the texture of the final jam.
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In a thick-bottomed saucepan or kadhai, add the blended puree & start heating on a medium flame.
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Stir for about a minute & then add all the liquid jaggery (or your sweetener) to the saucepan.
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Mix well for some time & keep this heating on a medium flame.
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Add the lemon juice, rind & mix well.
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Look for the time when you see the pureed strawberries leaving their juices into the mixture & the consistency slightly begins to change.
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Reduce the flame a bit & keep stirring for about a minute or two until the volume starts to decrease noticeably.
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At frequent intervals, keep stirring as you'll notice bubbles & at some point the mixture starts becoming denser & tends to stick to the sides. Don't let the sticking happen. This means the jam consistency is just about to be achieved.
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The volume keeps getting thicker turning out gelatinous (jelly-like) & darker in color,
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For me, the jam was ready in 25 minutes when I put off the flame.
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To check if your jam is really done or still needs cooking, do this. Take a spoon & scrape off a tiny part of the jam from the back of it. If the jam doesn't 'flow' or drip down & stays on the spoon, your jam is done!
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Cover the jam with a lid & wait for it to cool naturally.
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After the jam is completely cooled, you may then transfer all of it into a clean, glass jar or steel container. You must always store jam in an air tight container & avoid using plastic for the storing purpose.
Recipe Notes
- NEVER store this or any other homemade jam in plastic containers as substances like jams & pickles contain a lot of natural & healthy acids which react with the plastic resulting in toxic variations of the stored food, you intend to serve healthy. This can also affect your digestion process.
- The quantity of the sweetener can be adjusted according to your preference & how sweet your strawberries are.
- You can also choose to just chop all the strawberries into small pieces & start heating them with the sweetener, if you like the characteristic coarse texture of the jam. That tastes great too!
- Keep the bottled jam refrigerated.
- You may totally skip the lemon rind or juice. Nonetheless, adding this to the jam not only acts as a natural preservative, but also renders a unique & pleasant tangy twist to the flavor.
Common doubts about cooking this strawberry jam
“What if the final jam turns out to be sour? Can adding & mixing extra sweetener later be fine?”
Well, I haven’t had to do this anytime as tasting the strawberries before does help assess their sweetness before hand to adjust the quantity of sweetener that will go in cooking. However, as compared to jaggery powder or even sugar, adding some more liquid jaggery to cover the sourness would still be a great solution. It wouldn’t alter the strawberry flavor either. I haven’t tried using coconut sugar though.
“Can I use frozen strawberries to make the jam?”
Frozen berry-like fruits are a good choice for making sorbets or nice creams, in my opinion. I, therefore, do not really think they’d make a great ingredient for a jam. 🙂
DISCLAIMER – This post contains affiliate link(s) to products that I have used for the recipe.That means if you make a purchase on clicking the link, I earn a tiny commission at no extra cost to you. I’m grateful if you do. And I’ve never recommended products/services on my site, that I have not experienced myself. Please read my full disclosure.
So, how does this jam look to you? I’m sure making this will be a breeze for you and equally rewarding with its deliciousness and health bonuses! I’d love to know what you have to say about this sugar free strawberry jam.
If you are making it, I’d also love to see your jams on Instagram, where you can tag me in your posts. 🙂
This sounds easy peasy as well as delicious. I only know of jaggery powder though I’ve never heard it used in a jam. Sounds like a good idea. I would give it a distinctive flavour too, I suppose.
This looks delish! I wish I got strawberries here. But I’ll remember this post and shall make it the next strawberry season. 🙂
That looks amazing!
I didn’t know jam could be easily prepared at home but then my relationship with cooking is only limited to survival. The jams that are available in markets are too sweet therefore I stopped consuming jams many years ago. Hence, maybe a strawberry jam prepared at home with jaggery would be nice. I will try making it when strawberries become widely available at my place which happens to be in summer.
This sounds amazing. And it is so easy to make as well. I will try it next time. I made strawberry milkshake with my last batch, but a lot of them went bad as I couldn’t use them in time. Your no sugar lifestyle is super inspiring ?
I am drooling at this recipe ? I like Strawberries and have some lying in the fridge. I might give this recipe a try soon. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Can I use solid jaggery instead of the liquid one?
Hey, Reema. Glad that you liked this recipe. Yes, sure. Grated solid jaggery too can yield nice results.