Meatless Mondays – Blueberry Pear Chia Jam

I’m sorry that I’m a bit late posting this week’s Meatless Mondays post! When I got home from work last night I just felt like collapsing and doing not a lot. So technically it’s Tuesday but this was worth waiting for.

Meatless Mondays is a fortnightly challenge held over at Better With Veggies. This week’s challenge was to cook something with blueberries. I used to love blueberry muffins but for some reason I never get around to eating blueberries on their own. When they’re cooked they’re like little gooey purple goodies. I was finding it hard to find a blueberry recipe from last week’s “create a recipe” challenge that fit in with my diet (vegan and gluten free). Then I came across the Blueberry Blackberry Chia Jam from One Small Vegan.

The idea of this jam is that the chia seeds absorb the fluid from the fruits and turn the mixture into a jam/jelly type substance. I loved this idea. I used to love jam but sadly I gave it up due to the sugar content!

I made a few substitutions to this recipe. I used blueberry and pear to make my jam and used almond extract instead of vanilla. It turned out perfectly and I’m wondering what other combinations I could use now! I’m thinking strawberry and vanilla would be nice or cherry and almond.

I topped my porridge with this jam two mornings in a row. Lovely.

Other blueberry recipes I’d like to try out from this week’s challenge:

• Blueberry Lemon Muffins at Sandy’s Vegan Blogs and Blahs – I really need some vegan, gluten free blueberry muffins in my life!
• Green Greek Salad with Blueberry Balsamic Dressing at Greek Vegetarian – Since I branched out and put apple in my salad last week, I’d like to try some other fruits. This looks interesting!
• Baked Blueberry Custard at Spabettie – This uses coconut yoghurt which is something I really want to try. It has a blueberry cookie base… wow.
• Blueberry Pancakes at Versatile Vegan – A match made in heaven.
• Blueberry Coconut Granola at Fruit n Fitness – This sounds fantastic. I’m going to find a way to make this without the oats.
• Blueberry Sunflower Energy Bites at Spabettie – I really want to try these. They look really different!
• Blueberry Buckwheat Scones at Thyme Bombe – I don’t think this even needs justifying!
• Blueberry Lavender Almond Milk at Chickadee Says – I’ve never made my own almond milk but this makes me want to give it a go.
• Blueberry Coconut Almond Sauce at Kiss My Broccoli – This WILL get made.
• Blueberry Almond Orange Kale Salad with Blueberry Balsamic Vinaigrette at Sweat The Sweet Stuff – Another salad and dressing to try!

You can see all of the recipes here and here.

Next week I will be creating a recipe with cabbage. Don’t miss it!