you like-a tha juice, eh?

May 5, 2008 9:11 AM

I just got a juicer. Now what should I put in it?

What kinds of concoctions do you like to make with your juicer? Do you have any favorite juicing recipes?

posted by raztaj to food & drink (19 comments total)

one apple, as many carrots as you have, a hunk of ginger. Nectar of the gods.
posted by munchingzombie at 9:15 AM on May 5, 2008

JUICE EVERYTHING! When I got a juicer, I juiced the following: apple, carrot, tomato, cabbage, lettuce, onion, ginger and coconut. That's when things got bad. I wanted "meat juice", so I juiced some ground beef. The worst part of that was the beef juice. The best part was the microshredded beef that I made into a paste.

Of the fruits and veggies, the carrot and apple (mixed) was my fave.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 9:18 AM on May 5, 2008

Apple-carrot-ginger juice is awesome. To change it up, substitute beets for the carrots. It can be messy, but is a tasty way to get super-healthy beet nutrients.
posted by jeffmshaw at 9:20 AM on May 5, 2008

To add, juicers are also great for going the other way and extracting water from stuff: juicing oranges, coconuts and grapefruit resulted in lots of juice and super fine shredded fruit parts. I recombined them all to make a delicious ambrosia. Mushrooms work well too (I still want to try a hard boiled egg)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 9:21 AM on May 5, 2008

Fresh grape juice, when grapes are in season, is delish. If your grapes are seedless, cool. If not, I hope your juicer handles the seeds better than mine.
posted by mumkin at 9:21 AM on May 5, 2008

Wheat grass: buy some specially in a tray. Harvest a small amount. Juice it till you get a shot glass full and then down in one following up with a bite into a slice of lime.

Now throw away the rest of the wheat grass - from now on everything else will taste delicious by comparison.
posted by rongorongo at 9:35 AM on May 5, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

my favorite is carrot + celery + cucumber + ginger.
posted by gnutron at 9:47 AM on May 5, 2008

I've been beaten to it already, but carrots + apples = yum

It's a spectacular combination, one I've found hard to improve on. Use good apples- golden delicious, gala, etc. I would drink it every day if I hadn't grown so sick and tired of spending 15 minutes to make a drink I down in 15 seconds.

I strongly suggest you find a permanent spot for the juicer on you counter. Once you put it out of sight, you may find you quit using it.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 9:57 AM on May 5, 2008

Cucumber juice. It's weird, but delicious. Good with gin, especially Hendrick's.
posted by electroboy at 9:58 AM on May 5, 2008

I bought a juice recipe book - my two faves:

1) Carrot-Beet-Apple-Ginger-Celery-Orange. Depending on how you feel about supplements, you could add some wheatgrass powder (you need a special juicer to deal with wheatgrass) and/or spirulina. This was recommended for physical health.

2) Celery-Tomato-Cabbage-Fennel-Spinach-Garlic, topped off with cayenne pepper and some tamari (you'll need the tamari, it tastes nasty without it). This was recommended for mental strength - I definitely caught a buzz off of it, mainly from the garlic and the cayenne, I think.

You'll love juicing - you get great energy from it. Enjoy!
posted by fingers_of_fire at 9:59 AM on May 5, 2008

I once had pure ginger juice. That stuff is hardcore. You should definitely try it. And trick your friends into trying it.
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel at 10:05 AM on May 5, 2008

Don't go too nuts on the carrot juice unless you want to turn orange.
posted by clockwork at 10:18 AM on May 5, 2008

I was just coming in here to recommend ginger juice, actually. You may think it's a prank, but I love the stuff. I used to get it at a Senegalse restaurant where they sweetened it and added ... lemons, maybe? Limes? Something sour, anyway.

There was also a juice bar where I grew up that made truly phenomenal lemonade by feeding some fresh mint through the juicer along with the lemons.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:10 AM on May 5, 2008

There's a hip place where I live that offers what they call 'Klingon Blood Wine'. It's got carrot-beet-parsley-ginger- probably a few other things and a couple of serrano peppers. YUMMM! Will seriously put hair on your chest. You can shave afterward if you're not a guy or a female Klingon.
posted by elendil71 at 11:26 AM on May 5, 2008

oh man, all the replies are making me so excited to juice like a madwoman. and my juicer hasn't arrived yet. it will not be broken in gently. omg SO EXCITED! THANKS!
posted by raztaj at 11:31 AM on May 5, 2008

I love carrot-apple-ginger as well as ginger shots.

I would advise you to start slowly. As I wrote in an Amazon.com review of my juicer, if you do what I did and drink 30 carrots the first day you have the juicer, you may find yourself in violation of your state's "emissions laws."
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:43 AM on May 5, 2008

My typical drink:

1 lime
1 apple
2 carrots
1/2 beet

then whatever greens I feel like that week (ends up being about 1/3rd of the juice)
spinach (almost always)
bok choy
beet greens (whole foods sells beets with the greens still attached)
kale
chard
cabbage
collard greens

A sugar source (apple in this case) and citrus flavor will cover up the less fabulous tasting greens.

My juicer improved my mental and physical health so much that I feel like a zealot when I promote it, and it brought up serious questions about how terrible my diet is otherwise, and by typical American diet standards, it isn't that bad - I don't consume much junk food or fast food. Because of this I've added more vegetables to lunch and dinner and am trying to get away from industrial agriculture products.

I use this site to check out the nutrition content of foods. They list all the standard nutritional data (vitamins and such) and discuss the less understood anti-oxidants if applicable.

And skip the wheatgrass - it's the new age snake oil of the nutrition world. You're better off with spinach.
posted by MillMan at 12:07 PM on May 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I love coring a pineapple and squeezing all the juice out, so I can only imagine how much more you could get from it with a juicer.
posted by jeffmik at 2:20 PM on May 5, 2008

Carrot + apple + celery is tasty and refreshing.

Might be good without the carrots too, if you don't want to buy a literal tonne of them for all these recommendations.
posted by CKmtl at 2:36 PM on May 5, 2008