NYTimes article

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/looking-for-fitness-in-a-glass-of-juice/?smid=pl-share

Lavender? We Can Juice That!

I had a cleaning-out-our-fridges juicing party with a friend.  We wandered around the yard to see if there was anything else we could juice, and decided to throw some fresh lavender flowers in with our hodge podge of fruits.

"Lavender?!" My husband asked later. "You were just doing that to be pretentious."

"It's not like I'm showing my horse in an Olympic dressahhhhhhge event.  We just thought that lavender might be delicious.  And it was."

This made for a sweet, refreshing, summery juice. The lavender flavor was fairly subtle (we only added about 3 sprigs), so I would add more next time.

Summer Fruit Juice with Lavender Recipe

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~1/2 c. strawberries, tops removed

~1 c. cherries, pitted

~1 c. blueberries

~1 c. red seedless grapes, removed from stems

1 peach, pitted

~8 plums, pitted

2 red apples, quartered

1/2 lemon, peel removed

3-10 sprigs fresh lavender flowers (no need to remove from stems, just use the entire top of the flowering stalk)

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Put the lavender flowers in the juicer hopper, and push them through with a piece of apple.  Then run the remaining ingredients through the juicer.  

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Makes ~50 oz.

Green Stuff? We Can Juice That!

I gave myself the challenge of juicing any and all green things I could get my hands on.

Green grapes, limes, kiwi, mâche, spinach, honeydew.

Green apples.  Don't juice the fern.

Kale, basil, mint, pears, pea shoots.

Celery, avocado, cucumber, green tea, green grapes, kiwi, honeydew, limes, et al.

Honeydew and "Golden Dewlicious" melon

Green orchid with the bounty o' green

The avocado can't be juiced, so I threw it in the blender, along with the green tea (which had been chilled overnight) and most of the kiwi and melon (these latter two can be juiced, but I wanted the fiber, so in the blender they went).

The resulting juice/smoothie blend was, as Stefan called it, a "flavor journey".  It tastes sweet up front, then smacks you with a savory, almost peppery kick, then tastes sweet again.  If your palate doesn't want to be quite so peripatetic, you could leave out the celery and/or cut back on the kale, basil, or mint.

The point is, you can juice any or all of these green things (except the avocado).  Mix and match, experiment, and drink up your nutrients!

To prep:
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Rinse all the green things and chop small enough to fit into juicer chute (e.g., cut the apples into quarters). Special prep is needed for the following:
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avocado -- remove pit and skin
limes -- remove peel
kiwi -- remove peel
honeydew and Golden Dewlicious melon -- remove seeds and peel; cut into cubes
green grapes -- remove from stems
green tea -- make ahead of time and chill in fridge

Obscenely Green Juice Recipe

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Juice the following:

~5 c. spinach

~2 c. kale

~4 c. mâche (optional; could substitute lettuce)

4 limes

5 pears

8 Granny Smith apples

5 stalks celery (optional)

2 large cucumbers

1-2 c. green grapes

1 c. pea shoots

~5 sprigs fresh mint, to taste

~5 sprigs fresh basil, to taste

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Blend the following:

4 avocados

half a honeydew melon

half a "Golden Dewlicious" melon

~8 kiwi fruits

2 c. green tea, chilled

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Mix the juiced and blended components together.

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Makes over 1 gallon (!)

Pears? We Can Juice That!

Pears make a nice thick, viscous, pulpy juice -- more of a 'nectar', you might say.

Pear-amid

Pears pair nicely with blueberry.  The resulting juice (recipe below) is scrumptious, but it's really quite sweet.  If you don't want to get tazed into a sugar coma, I recommend drinking this alongside some protein and/or complex carbs.

Hydrangeas, still going strong.

Pear-Blueberry Juice Recipe

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~12 pears, quartered

~2 c. blueberries

~1 c. strawberries, green tops removed

1 or 2 lemons, peel removed

~5 c. fresh spinach

2 apples, quartered.

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Run the pears, blueberries, strawberries, and lemon flesh through a juicer.  Then add small handfuls of spinach, each followed by a piece of apple.

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Makes a little under 80 oz.

Jalapeño? We Can Juice That!

Woke up and decided that I needed to focus on lowering my caloric intake - not fun!  I love Bloody Marys and pulled together a mix of veggies that I felt would give me the same flavor profile.  Note to self - a quarter of a jalapeno is too much!  Prepping was fairly easy - cut the rind off of the lemon, took the top off of the pepper and washed the remaining veggies.  

Loved this concoction - it's super filling and flavorful.

Healthy Bloody Mary Juice Recipe:
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1/4 of a cabbage
2 zucchini
2 plum tomatoes
bunch of spinach
bunch of basil
bunch of parsley
1 lemon
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
1/4 red bell pepper
a slice of jalapeño pepper
1-inch-thick slice of red onion

Basil? We Can Juice That!

Juicing fresh basil?  It sounded crazy, but this experiment really paid off.  I had a bunch of leftover basil, and thought it would pair well with peaches and blackberries.  The basil added a pungent, spicy depth of flavor to this summer fruit juice.  

I always add greens to my fruit juices to hide extra nutrients.  I used spinach for this one.  Apples help push the greens through the juicer.  A bit of lemon juice kicked up the flavors even further.   

To prep:
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Peaches - rinse; cut in half and remove pits
Blackberries - rinse
Lemons - cut in quarters; remove yellow peel
Basil - rinse; use entire stems with attached leaves 
Spinach - rinse
Apples - rinse; cut in quarters

Basil-Blackberry-Peach Juice Recipe

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~12 peaches

~1.5 c. blackberries

2 lemons

1-1.5 c. fresh basil

~4 c. fresh spinach

~6 apples (I used Pink Lady)

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Run the peaches, blackberries, and lemon flesh through a juicer.  Then add small handfuls of basil and spinach, each followed by a piece of apple.

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Makes a little under 80 oz.

Complex, refreshing, and tasty!

Berries? We Can Juice That!

It's summer, so I loaded up on a ton of cheap organic berries -- strawberries, cherries, blueberries, and blackberries.  If the marketing hype is to be believed, these berries (and "berries") pack a powerful antioxidant punch.

Okay, technically only blueberries are true berries, from a botanical point of view. They are fleshy and produced from a single ovary.

A strawberry is an aggregate of achenes on a big red receptacular accessory fruit...

...a cherry is a drupe...

...and a blackberry is a drupecetum, or aggregate of drupelets.

Nerd alert! (I mostly just wanted an excuse to write 'receptacular'.)

How to prep:
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Strawberries -- rinse; cut off the green tops (persistent calyx).
Cherries -- rinse; take off the stems and remove the pits.  (By the way, whoever discovers a mutant [or genetically modified?] seedless cherry is going to make a pretty penny.
Blueberries -- just rinse.
Blackberries -- just rinse.

Cherries prepped the night before.

Fresh Berry and Spinach Juice Recipe
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~2 c. strawberries
~2 c. cherries
~1.5 c. blueberries
~1.5 c. blackberries
small chunk of raw red beet (optional; for added color)
~5 c. fresh spinach
4-5 Granny Smith apples, quartered
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Run the berries through a juicer.  Then add small handfuls of spinach, each followed by a piece of apple.
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Makes ~80 oz., or four of these bad boys:

Crazy delicious!