Beginner Juicing Recipes for Digestion, Skin Health, and Nutrient Boosts.
Why Juice?
Prevent produce waste
Juicing is a helpful and powerful tool to get extra servings of fruits in your day, save extra produce from the trash before it gets overripe, and give yourself an immune boost.
If you are like me, sometimes you get in a rut when cooking during the week and realize you ate all your favorite veggies but none of the others. There are multiple ways of managing this situation. A random veggie oven roast bowl with a compatible sauce, an everything but the kitchen sink veggie soup, a smoothie, or prepping and freezing what you can’t get to. I love to juice produce approaching overripeness. Don’t lose your hard-earned cash through rotting produce.
Pack in your veggie and fruit servings (even of some veggies you don’t like)
Juicing and smoothies are excellent ways to pack in extra nutrients, antioxidants, micro-nutrients, and fruit and veggie servings, especially if you don’t like eating them (Me and my relationship with spinach). Depending on your recipe you can squeeze in even the rarely consumed veggies that are excellent for your health!
Boost your health, micronutrients and immune system
When you are feeling under the weather, packing in some fruit and veggies with some immune-boosting health ingredients could be an excellent way to prevent worsening sickness. Ingredients like ginger, garlic, black pepper, and lemon can be strong-tasting and are better consumed in a sweet drink or a savory soup or tea. Juicing helps you consume these ingredients raw, which, for some produce, preserves a host of nutrients.
Delicious fresh flavor!
Your homemade juice is much healthier than store-bought juices, usually containing excess sugar and much smaller percentages of real juice. Even if you add sugar to your juice, you are in full control of exactly how much you add and therefore control how much sugar sneaks into your body through drinks.
The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day (according to the CDC), 2-3 times over the recommended allowance.
Help with digestion and menstrual cycle pain
Adding ginger and black pepper or mixing your juice with raspberry leaf tea, can help your digestion and relieve cramps. Similarly mixing with green tea can boost antioxidants.
My Go-To Recipes
All of the recipes below are made to fit in a 64 oz Juice Jug, which you and your household can drink in a week or less. To sweeten for those with a sweet tooth, try making a simple syrup with equal parts water and sugar, I recommend no more than 1/2 cup. Alternatively, 2-3 tablespoons of maple syrup or 2-3 teaspoons of stevia could do the trick. The sweetness is usually perfect without added sugar when you choose in-season fruit. These are my most frequently made juices, but I have many more recipes on the way!
Recipe 1: Hydration and Digestion Aid
1 bag of small to medium Apples
2-3 Large thumbs of Ginger (or to taste, I like it spicy)
4-5 Lemons
1/2 -1 tsp of black ground pepper (to taste and very optional)
Recipe 2: Hair Skin and Nails Juice
1 bag of Carrots
2-3 Large thumbs of Ginger (or to taste, I like it spicy)
1 bag of small-medium Apples
Recipe 3: Healthy Green Drink
1 medium bag of Spinach
1 head of Celery
1-2 Cucumbers
3-4 Apples or pears
2-3 medium thumbs of Ginger (to taste)
2 Lemons or lime