Basic Juicing Tricks and Tips Plus Juice Reviews

Most people who make juicing a part of their lives have three levels of preference for the ingredients they use. At the top of the heap is organically grown produce, the kind that you’d pick in your own backyard, find at roadside fruit and veggie stands, or get at a local farmer’s market. Next, are fruits and vegetables that you can get at any supermarket aisle - definitely not as good as organic ingredients, but it’ll do for most city dwellers who don’t have easy access to the real stuff. And at the bottom are either canned/bottled fruits that you try to turn into juice - or even pre-bottled juice that you buy at the supermarket.

That organically grown stuff is just better because it often (although not always) is left unsprayed and is not artificially ripened with chemicals. For produce in the supermarket, they often have to pick it when it’s still unripe so that it will survive the long trip to your store. The apples and carrots that you get at the supermarket may LOOK better and less flawed than the rustic items you see at the farmer’s market, but they look that way because they’ve been picked while the fruit or vegetable is still hard to ease transport.

Continue reading “Organic vs. Supermarket Juicing” …

When most people think of tomato juice, they’re thinking V8 or some similar tomato-vegetable cocktail type of drink. Sacramento Products does make a “kitchen sink” vegetable type of juice, but their better product may be their pure Tomato Juice.

And when they say pure, they do mean pure. Ingredients are just: water, tomato paste, salt, and vitamin C. That’s pretty much it.

The juice comes in 6 oz cans (amazon had six packs of them for around $2.50 or so) and are the pop top variety. The flavor of the juice is really decent, and that probably has to do with the quality of the tomatoes they use… I mean that’s the main ingredient so I’m guessing that it must have something to do with it. Makes an excellent drink on it’s own, or you can go the bloody mary route. I do wish they would try and cut the salt down, but then this isn’t a lo-salt or diet variety of tomato juice. And they’re certainly not as salty as some of the other commercial tomato juice varieties.

Juicing Basics Rating: 7 out of 10
Approximate Price: $2.50-3.00 for six 6-oz cans

I think I’ve had a similar recipe to this one before - the grapes make it a bit different though. If you don’t have oranges, it’s possible to use orange juice here. Make sure to peel of the skin of the pineapple - you can also use sliced pineapple if that’s what you have.

Ingredients:

4 strawberries
3 pineapple spears with outer skin removed
1 bunch of red grapes
1/2 orange, peeled, white pith ok

Continue reading “Super Sunrise” …

If you’ve got a juicer already, it’s simple enough, and cheaper, to just grind up your own store-bought carrots. For healthy peeps on the go, however, you might be interested in Hollywood Carrot Juice
which comes in 12 ounce cans.

A single can of this 100% pure carrot drink contains all the juice and benefits of 2 full pounds of carrots. You already know the benefits of drinking carrot juice (beta carotene, potassium, vitamin A) and this is a decent way to get it without making your own juice.

The one issue may be that it’s not exactly cheap at over $2 a can, but the key is its not from concentrate at all. It also may be a little more difficult to find (you can order it from amazon, or from specialty food stores).

Juicing Basics Rating: 8 out of 10
Approximate Price: $2-2.50 for 12 oz can

Pomegranate juice seems to be extremely popular nowadays. I guess I don’t need to go into how good it is for you or all the nutrients that it has. I found this recipe on the web which is more of a drink than a juicing mixture. Still, the lemon gives it some extra zing. One downside is the large amount of pomegranates needed to make this… if that’s prohibitive you may just want to look into buying pomegranate juice from your local market.

Ingredients:

7-8 large pomegranates
1 medium lemon, peeled but pith ok
24 ounces sparkling mineral water (or champagne)

Continue reading “Pomegranate Power Juice” …

There are so many things that you can do with the leftover pulp from juicing. One of the most common things to use it for is as a thickening as well as flavoring agent for soups and stews. You can make a pretty decent tasting (and some might say fancy) soup by putting the pulp remnants from juicing vegetables in a blender and giving it a whirl.

The main thing to remember here is that when you do juice your veggies to keep the pulp of the ones you want separated out for different uses. You can zip them up in baggies and pop them in the fridge, or into the freezer in sturdier bags for long term storage. Just remember that you’ve got fresh veggie pulp there, so it’s a good idea to use it promptly. Sometimes labeling the bags as to what’s inside and the date can help quite a bit.]]

Here’s a simple recipe for soup from some of the common veggies you might pulp - mix and match to your taste. Also, you can turn this into more of a tomato soup by adding tomato paste, diced tomatoes, or a bit of tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

14 oz. can of chicken stock or broth
pulp from 2 carrots
pulp from 1 zucchini
pulp from 1 bell pepper
pulp from 2 stalks celery

Continue reading “Soup in a Blender” …

This is a great tasting Minneola tangerine beverage from essn. Although, I have to admit that companies that insist on the lower case for their name annoy the living hell out of me… Minneolas, which are the same thing as common Florida tangelos, have a nice bright orange taste (I had one just the other day). The beverage itself is 100% juice with a light added carbonation for fizz. The taste is similar to orange juice mixed with a bit of grapefruit or lemon… there’s a very slight tangy bitterness beneath the tangerine flavor which is quite refreshing.

essn, which is made by SkylarHaley, was only introduced four years ago. They have three other excellent juice flavors: Fuji Apple, Meyer Lemon, Blood Orange & Cranberry. The cans are interesting because they look like energy drinks. Not too bad price if you buy it in bulk.

Juicing Basics Rating: 7 out of 10
Approximate Price: $35 for 24 pack

This juice combo might remind you fondly of Carrot Cake, especially if you add the right spices. There are probably a bunch you can add, but cinnamon and cardamom are probaby two of the most common.

Ingredients:

4 large carrots
1/4 pineapple, cut into spears, no skin
1 apple
carrot cake spices (cardamom, cinnamon)

Continue reading “Carrotcake Juice” …

I had some of this interesting Volcano Orange Juice the other day. Also known as “Blood Orange Juice“, you can also surprisingly order it through Amazon where it comes in a pack of three 3/4 liter tall glass bottles (which almost look like wine bottles). But it’s definitely found at Trader Joe’s as well.

It’s made from 100% blood oranges varieties grown in Italy near Mt. Etna, and hence the name. The color is a striking red-orange hue and it gets that color from the special blend of three different types of regional blood oranges: Tarocco, Sanguinello and Moro.

Continue reading “Volcano Orange Juice” …

I’ve seen numerous variations on the famous “liquid lunch” idea. Basically, you want to start off with a full breakfast first before attempting to replace your lunch with a nutritious power juice combination like this one. It starts off with a tomato, carrot, cabbage base and expands into other veggies after that.

Ingredients:

2 large carrots, cut in half, unpeeled OK
1/2 head of cabbage, cut into manageable wedges
4-5 medium tomatoes, cut into quarters
2 celery stalks, cut in half, tops OK
1 head of broccoli, no stalk, cut into manageable pieces
1 medium turnip (optional)
1/2 lemon, peeled, cut into wedges (optional)

Continue reading “Power Lunch Juicing” …