It’s winter and our tree is swarming with mandarins! Lucky enough our kids eat them by the bucket load and so do Randall and I. This year, instead of having them piled high in a bowl in the kitchen for us to eat when desired, we thought we would turn our hands to making some mandarin jam and oh my gosh we have not been disappointed… it is delicious!
The kids feedback… ‘that’s mint mum!’ so I know you and your kids are going to love it too. I remember making jams and marmalades with my nana and lathering toast with fresh butter and a healthy spread of her homemade jam from citrus fruits fresh from her garden. It was divine.
Love them or hate them mandarins are so good for your health from your skin to your immune system (high vitamin C) to your brain and much more! Mandarins are also high in folic acid and can help with improving brain function, reliving stress and feelings of depression. They also may aid the foetus’s nerve system during pregnancy due to the folic acid they contain.
And…mandarins have many other benefits too:
- Strengthening the hair
- Regulates blood cholesterol levels
- Reduces symptoms of allergies
- Reduce appetite
- Regulates blood sugar levels
Get some of these citrus delights into your diet when they are in season. Our homemade mandarin jam recipe is a great place to start. It is so quick and easy to make and uses less than half of the recommended sugar of most conventional recipes… Win-win!
Here’s what you need:
- 1kg of mandarins
- Zest of 4 mandarins
- Zest of 2 limes
- Juice of 2 limes
- 150g organic cane sugar (or rapadura or coconut sugar)
Here’s how to put it together:
- Place the 150 grams of organic cane sugar on a tray and into the oven to warm (this will help the jam to set better).
- Peel the mandarins.
- Chop the mandarins around the middle and be sure to discard of any pips!
- Put the zest, chopped mandarins and juice of two limes into your Thermomix or blender and blitz until well combined.
- Once blitzed well, re check for pips as I had found a few floating around.
- Place all the mixture into a saucepan, place on the stove and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling add the organic cane sugar and bring it to boil again.
- Then reduce it to a simmer for about an hour.
- Once it started catching on the pan a little and coating the back of the spoon it was good to remove from the heat.
- Allow to cool a little.
- Place mixture into sterilised and clean jars.
Suggestions:
Why not spread this delectable jam on Vital Wellbeing’s organic homemade buckwheat bread. Make a loaf, toast a few slices and enjoy the richness of this not too tart not too sweet organic homemade mandarin jam. It’s not a thick jam, but rather a delectable, spreadable and edible one!
The recipe makes about two x 235g jars and a half jar left over!
NOTE: The organic cane sugar didn’t change the vibrant mandarin colour like rapadura or coconut sugar would have so it becomes a personal preference. I’m going to give coconut sugar a go next knowing that the colour will be darker. Most recipes however ask for a 1:1 ratio of the highly processed and refined white sugar to keep the vibrant look but I don’t suggest using it (for your health!) when there are great alternative sugars.
