WHAT TO DO WITH PULP
The pulp can be placed in a garbage disposal or in the trash. But if you feel bad tossing it out, remember your body also disposes of it once the nutrients are extracted. You’re just skipping the step where the body has to do all that work itself. There are other ways you can utilize the pulp however. If you have a garden it’s great for the compost heap! There are recipes that use pulp but I’ve only used one. It’s a RAW carrot cake that uses carrot pulp as the main ingredient and it’s one of the most decadent and delicious desserts I’ve ever eaten. I’ll be posting that recipe at some point in the future. A list of ideas for using pulp is included in the free packet you can download below.
FOAM : THE WHIPPED TOPPING OF RAW JUICE
When you juice fruits and vegetables with the Centrifugal juicer the spinning motion makes a head of foam on the top. Depending on the item juiced it will be different amounts. This is one thing I’ve NEVER understood. Some folks don’t like that and remove it before drinking. HUH?!? It’s pure juice just whipped up a little. I’m guessing they equate it to something nasty in their heads somehow though I can’t imagine what it might be. It’s purely psychological though.
In fact the foam is my FAVORITE PART and feels like I’m eating whipped topping! If I could turn a whole batch of juice into that foam I would. (In fact I’ve tried with one of those milk frothing devices. Didn’t work.) Of course I like the foam the best on the sweeter juices but it’s great on the vegetable juices too. I’ll even toss a little crushed ice in my juice sometimes and mix it into the foam. Pure ambrosia!
The large cup that comes with some juicers has a lid that will help strain off the foam. To me that’s like tossing juice down the drain.
JUICE STORAGE & SEPARATING
Your juice will start to separate a little if you let it sit. All that means is its pulling the lighter parts of the juice to the top and the heavier to the bottom. This is another one of those psychological things for some people. It tastes perfectly fine drinking it separated as its all still pure juice. If it bugs you just stir it often while drinking.
You can juice a batch to drink throughout the day if desired and even up to 48 hours. Just know that as soon as you juice your fruits and veggies they will start losing nutrients. The longer they are exposed to air the more they will lose. Does that mean you can’t store them? Of course not. Just be aware of that. You’ll also notice a lot of settling if you do that. Stir it up and drink!
Here are a few things I’ve learned and some previously mentioned things to remember.
- Carrots are generally the cheapest and give the greatest yield of juice for your money. You can use these as a base for almost any type of juice.
- Fruits and veggies can be combined with no problem. Some don’t go well together of course, but apples go with anything and are great for sweetening a variety of vegetable juices.
- Place leafy vegetables between hard fruits or veggies when juicing to help the juice extract better.
- Lemons or limes added to a green vegetable juice will remove the bitterness that some of them have.
- Organic fruits and vegetables don’t need to be peeled before juicing.
- If you’re doing a juice fast make sure you drink a lot of vegetables. Don’t just juice fruit only as it’s high in sugar content.
- Dark, leafy greens are super foods and have incredible health benefits. Use a lot of them! Kale, Romaine, Baby Spinach, Etc.
- Baby spinach can be added to any juice. You won’t taste it unless you use a very large amount in a very small amount of juice.
- As soon as fruits and vegetables are juiced, or even cut, they begin to lose nutrients. Drink them as soon as possible. (Oxidation)
- If you have to store juice, don’t do it for more than 48 hours.
I’m only listing a few because recipes are not really needed. If you buy a juicing book of recipes you’ll start to notice all the authors are doing is tossing in different fruits and veggies and naming the juice something cool. Sometimes they use specific one’s for their health benefit of course and that info could be useful to you. But as far as just basic juicing goes… juice what you like! These two are a couple of standards I make. I change them up depending on what I have in the fridge. With some testing you’ll find juice mixtures you like better than others.
V5 JUICE (Similar to V8 only healthier.)
This is the only pure veggie juice I made that has no fruit in it at all. It’s hot which I love though you can leave out the Tabasco if you don’t care for hot things. Juice all the vegetables. When finished add in sea salt and Tabasco hot sauce to tastes.
- 2 tomatoes
- 1/4th red bell pepper
- 1/6th chunk red onion
- 1/2 large cucumber
- 2 large carrots
- Salt
- Tabasco
Morning Fruit Juice
Use any fruits you like. As I’ve also mentioned I almost always put in organic baby spinach into my fruit juices. It does not change the flavor and adds the extra nutritional bonus you get from dark greens.
- 2 Apples of choice
- Chunks of melon
- 1 large orange
- 1 chunk pineapple (not shown)
- Big handful of baby spinach
Energy Juice
When you don’t want something super sweet that has a bite to it this one is great!
- 1 large cucumter
- 1 peeled lemon
- 1 large handful of romain
- 1 apple
Creamy Dreamy Juice
This one might surprise you. It did me. I had no idea you could juice sweet potatoes… and that they would taste good. In reality you don’t taste it much at all and it adds a creaminess to the juice. Sweet and smooth!
- 1/4th pineapple
- 2 large carrots
- 1 apple
- 1/2 sweet potato
