Tag: juice

  • Mean & green

    Mean & green

    Stinging nettles everywhere! This is a forager’s feast. I’ve made nettle pesto, nettle garlic butter, nettle soup, nettle tea and nettle smoothie in the past week or so.

    Stinging nettles (brandnetels): they tickle the kidneys, cleanse the blood and promote fluid excretion. They contain loads of vitamin c and iron (which is great during menses and pregnancy) as well as minerals. And, did I mention, they are everywhere and they are free :).

    I use a paper bag and a thin glove for carefree picking. I pick only the fresh green tops. Make sure you pick above peeing and pooing level to avoid contamination with worms or eggs in animal feces. Back at home, soak for a minute or so in freshly boiled water, this will remove the sting. Then use the fresh leaves and stalks in this super nice, simple juicy smoothie:

    Recipe for mean & green nettle juice

    • 1/3 cucumber
    • 1 celery stalk (or half, to taste)
    • 1 handful of stinging nettles
    • 1 cup apple or orange juice, or half an apple and some water

    Extra nice with some fresh mint!

    Enjoy 🙂

  • Lemon ginger juice

    Lemon ginger juice

    Drool alert! Here’s a quickie for everyone out there who owns a juicer: juice 10 lemons and 1-2 hand-sized pieces of ginger. Leave the lemon rind on (if it tastes bitter, find other lemons).

    The lemon juice is almost milky, bright yellow and gives a really refreshing kick. It’s so strong people ask me wether it’s concentrate (it’s not). Pure lemon power! Leave the rind on to also reap the benefits of the lemon essential oil; the scent alone is calming and brings life to your cells.

    Add a few drops or a few spoons to hot or cold water: both drinks are delicious and very wholesome. Or, even better: have one pure shot in the morning and forget all about coffee.

    I found a very cute pinkie-tall little jug (photo) in the second hand store that’s perfect for serving as most people will only add a few drops to their water.

    At Boom Festival, i brought a 1.5 liter bottle that lasted all week, making me many friends as well ;).

    In India, we would enjoy this drink in sparkling water stirred with salt: the lemon or lime soda.

  • Basics of juicing: avocado-apple-kiwi juice

    Basics of juicing: avocado-apple-kiwi juice

    My best kitchen purchase ever: a juicer. A bought it a year ago and have been using it about every two days. Superhealthy and really, really delicious. Friends love it, too.

    Here are some good-to-knows, tips and tricks:

    How does a juicer work:
    This is how the juicer works: vegetables and fruits are grated into pulp. The pulp is being centrifuged and thus pushed outward against the walls with very fine holes. Only the juice and finest pulp goes through. The result: superfresh, naturally cloudy juice. Best is to choose a machine that fits whole apples in the shaft.

    The above is for high-speed juicers. If you want to retain even more nutrients in your juice, choose a mechanically driven slow juicer.

    What do you need for juicing?
    For fruit juices, use apples or pears as a basis. Jason Vale (Philips’ marketing puppet juice chef): apple-sandwich. Start with an apple, stuff in anything else you lie in your juice and then end with an apple again. It works for me! I always have apples, pears, kiwifruits, carrots, lemons, ginger, mint, beetroot and leafy greens lying around so i always have my favorite juice ingredients at hand.

    Don’t peel your veggies!
    Apples, pears, carrots, beets, cucumbers, zucchinis, and even lemons and pineapples (well, be a bit careful with those): don’t peel! That would be a waste of vitamins ánd time! They can all go inside the juicer without peeling.

    Juicing oranges
    Oranges and clementines do need to be peeled (but not lemons and limes), because the rind holds bitter oils which will spoil your juice.

    Juicing bananas
    Veggies and fruits with a lot of starch, are not suitable for the juicer. The filter would get clogged with pulp. Ideally, use a blender or hand mixer to blend banana, avocado, papaya, mango, prunes etc into the juice.

    Superfast juicing process
    I’ll let mr. Vale do the talking:

    Recipe for Apple-kiwifruit-avocado juice:
    Juice 3-4 apples and 1-2 kiwis. Blend the juice with one half avocado. The avocado creates a deliciously light, luffy, creamy texture. It’s like ice cream, everybody loves it!

    (Update, 4+ years later: I still love juicers, nothing beats the taste of fresh juice! But I found with all those juices, I was drinking a LOT of sugar and missing most of the fibres. And although I often used the pulp to make something different, it felt like a pity to leave so much of the fruit and veg unused. Long story short… I’m back to smoothies, using the blender. Simply add water or any kind of juice to chunks of whole fruits and vegs in the blender and you can basically drink your daily dose.)