Making your own fruit paste from scratch is such a satisfying way to get rid of old fruit sitting at the bottom of your fridge, but it is also HUGELY impressive to make a cheese platter for friends or family that you have made entirely from scratch! Trust me 😉 This quick and easy fruit paste uses only a handful of ingredients, and with the use of chia seeds doesn’t rely on the usual need for sugar to enable it to thicken and set. Bonus! 🍐🍏💚
INGREDIENTS
🫙 2 cups chopped fruit of your choice (we used apple and pear here); remove pips, stems, etc..
🫙 1-2 tblsp lemon juice
🫙 1-2 tblsp sugar, agave, maple syrup, or erythritol for sugar free (this is what we used!)
🫙 2 tblsp chia seeds (powdered if you don’t want them whole in the end result), plus more if needed for desired thickness
🫙 Handful of fresh herbs of choice (optional – we use thyme for this one as the flavour of thyme really goes beautifully with the sweetness of apple and pear!)
METHOD
Add your fruit to a saucepan (we blended first for a super smooth end result, but you can mash at the end instead as an alternative) and cook on medium heat until breaking down / soft and syrupy. If using fresh herbs, either blend them down (if soft herbs) or leave them in whole sprigs and add to the pot. Leaving them whole makes them easy to remove at the end once the flavour has been imparted in the cooking process. You want to make sure it still has some liquid in the pan as this will be absorbed by the chia seeds.
If you did NOT blend in the beginning, you can now mash the softened fruit with the back of a fork or potato masher if you have one, to the texture / consistency you like in jam (smooth vs chunky, etc).
Remove from the heat, remove your whole herb springs, and add 1 tblsp each of the sweetener and lemon juice. Taste and add the extra tblsp if needed. Add the chia and stir well to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes to thicken. If you wish to have a thicker jam, add more chia 1 teaspoon at a time.
Serve with your fav Vegan Dairy cheese!! We used the Chilli Chives cheese here for an excellent balance between sweet, salty, and spicy 🙌🏼
