Fruit and vegetable drinks that you create with your own juicing appliance are going to be great for your health. I want to present a few of my favorite recipes which you might want to try out. The type of juicer that you use is a factor in the quality of the juice that you can make. For instance, some juicers are able to extract more liquid than others. While centrifugal juicers are the fastest, you might be able to get a better quality juice by using a masticating juicer such as the Omega J8006 or Omega VRT350HD. Although, to be frank, the best thing that you can do for your health, as far as juicing is concerned, is to make a juice every day regardless of the type of unit that you use.
By varying the drinks that you create and using a range of juice recipes for health, you give your body the most varied nutrient profile possible. You should aim to juice a wide variety of fruits and vegetables over the course of a week. As well as juice extracting, you might want to try blending as well. The premium blending product on sale today is the Vitamix CIA Professional blender but you can get by with much cheaper brands. It really just depends how far along the juicing for health road you want to go. The attraction of using a blender is that we do not remove the fiber from the juice, it becomes a part of it. So “juices” made in a blender have a thicker, richer quality to them. As you will see below, there are some great recipes that employ both a juicer and a blender. The only down side to this is that it means you have more washing up to do.
V4 Juice
Everyone knows the popular V8 Juice that is sold in supermarkets. At home, I like to keep my juice recipes simple so that I can make them quickly. So instead of an eight vegetable juice, I find it easier to make V4. Can you guess how many vegetables I use?
- Tomato (1-3)
- Carrot (1-2)
- Celery (1/2 stalk)
- Spinach (1 handful)
I would recommend trying out your own ratios of tomatoes and carrots. Some days I go with a tomato base in which case I use 2 tomatoes and 1 carrot. Other days, I use 1 tomato and 2 carrots. It just depends upon my mood and what I have in the fridge!
For added flavor, you can squeeze in some lemon juice or run some lemon through your juicer. A dash of Worcestershire sauce is another tasty addition.
Orange and Banana Smoothie
This is a recipe that uses both a juicer and a blender. If you have a citrus juicer, this is the perfect time to get it out.
- Orange (2-3)
- Banana (1)
The first thing to do is juice your oranges, for a thicker smoothie, just use two oranges. Then add half the freshly squeezed orange juice and banana to your blender and blend until smooth. Finally stir in the remaining orange juice and serve. The reason that I don’t add all my orange juice to the blender is because it froths up too much. I think the final drink is better when you follow the recipe above.
Berry Juice
For me, this is a seasonal juice and great to have when the berries are in season. I use store bought cranberry juice in this recipe. You could use water or make your own apple juice. For me, water makes it too watery and apple juice makes it too sweet. Your experience may vary.
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Cranberry juice (Ocean Spray, etc.)
Depending on what is in season just add some berries and cranberry juice to your blender, blend and serve. You can substitute fresh ingredients for frozen berries. I did not include quantities of each berry as I want to encourage you to experiment.
Creating your own recipes is fun and there are no particular rules that we have to follow. If you come up with a great recipe, I’d love to hear about it!
