If you're trying to eat healthier and feel better, green juice is the perfect gateway drug. Filled with the sweetness of apples and cucumber, the salience of celery, the earthiness of kale, a pucker of lime and the spice of ginger, this green juice is your first-thing every morning path to health. At least that's what it became for me.
How and Why I Started Drinking Green Juice
One of the goals of my journey to eat healthier was to improve my digestion. I figured that would make every other goal easier. The more I researched, the more I saw recommendations for eating a variety of fruits and vegetables - especially raw. Green juice seemed like a good way to get started because while I knew that fiber was one of the benefits of adding fruits and vegetables, at first, I needed something a little easier to digest. I just needed to figure out how to make juiced vegetables taste good!
At first, I tried some of the fresh bottled green juices in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Let me save you the trouble. Don’t. Fresh juice oxidizes and the taste changes quickly after it’s freshly made. Then I bought green juices at a fresh juice bar that makes juice to order. That was a great way to find one that tasted good to me. The downside was that I had to go there every time I wanted a juice. I wanted to drink green juice every day, so I had to find a better way.
How I Made Juicing a Daily Routine
If I wanted to invest in juicing, I would need to buy a good juicer and make it at home. That would let me experiment and create the fruit and veggie combinations that taste best to me and digest easily. And, that is how I started my adventures in juicing and never looked back. Today, I look forward to my green juice in the morning every single day. There's nothing else I want my first taste to be.
As with any new habit, It took time to sink in and feel natural, but once I was doing it regularly, I wondered why I didn’t do it sooner. Join me.
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Ingredients
Juicing is a great opportunity to seek out the freshest vegetables you can find. The fresher they are, the better flavor your juice will have.
Here are a few notes about the ingredients you'll need to make this basic green juice:
- Celery: When shopping for celery, look for stalks that are fresh, firm, crisp to the touch, and vibrantly colored (no browning), ideally with a good heft to them (not scrawny or limp).
- Cucumbers: Look for cucumbers that are firm to the touch (no soft pockets) and have a little weight to them (you want them bursting with hydration). Cucumbers add such a light, fresh, slightly sweet taste to the juice.
- Fennel: Fennel brings a natural and unique sweetness to the juice. After you get used to its unique taste, you will miss it when it’s not there.
- Kale: Kale adds a grassy undertone to the juice and gives it a beautiful evergreen color. Alone, raw kale has a bitter undertone and a peppery edge, but with the assist of the citrus tang and the sweetness from the apple, not a bitter note prevails in the juice.
- Ginger: Ginger adds some spice and heat to the juice so start small and adjust your level of enjoyment and tolerance over time. This powerful root can aid digestion, has been known to reduce inflammation and has many other beneficial properties I’ll detail in posts to come.
- Apple: Everyone seems to have an apple favorite. I’m currently loving Cosmic Crisps, which are sweet. You can try Granny Smiths to add a tartness, or Honey Crisps, Fujis, Envys or whichever variety you enjoy most.
- Lime: Last but not least is the puckery lime. Do not omit the lime. The citrus punches up both the earthiness and the sweetness and balances the spicy ginger. A green juice is just not the same without the citrus!
Instructions
It's so simple to make juice really. Though there is a little trial and error to it, just buy or (even better, grow!) some fresh fruits and vegetables, cut them into pieces that fit into your juicer, then load the juicer from softer textures to harder. In this case, start with the leafy greens (kale in this case), then the lime, the cucumber, the apples, ginger, fennel and then the celery. This way, if any of the softer ingredients sneak into any of the corners, the celery will serve as the clean up crew and make sure every piece gets juiced!
- Cut up your veggies and fruits so they'll fit in your juicer.
- Load the juicer with the softer textured vegetables and fruits first.
Hint: Over time, you'll be able to eyeball and taste your way to the quantities of each ingredient that you prefer. Also, different fruits and vegetables net different volumes of juice. Watch and learn. I've found it to be a fun set of experiments.
Green Juice (and Gateway Drug) Variations
Here are a few variations that will also make a delicious green juice.
- Vary the citrus: Try using lemon instead of lime or add them both to really dial up the tartness.
- Try different leafy greens: I used kale in this recipe, but try swiss chard, spinach, dandelion greens (if you like it spicy) or collard greens. They each add a different earthy foundation.
- Simplify: Try juicing just a stalk of celery. You’ll be surprised at its sweet salinity. Or try celery and apple or celery and cucumber. When you simplify the ingredients, you get to know exactly which qualities and flavors each one brings to the juice.
- Adjust to taste: If you’re just getting used to green juices, dial up the fruit so you still get the benefit of the veggies, and you increase the palatability as your taste buds adapt. Reduce the fruit over time keep the keep the proportion of veggies to fruit at about 80%.
- Switch out the fruit: Green juice is equally delicious sweetened with an orange, tangerine or other sweet citrus.
- Add herbs: Consider adding parsley, cilantro, or mint for an herbal note.
Juicing Does Take Planning and Preparation
- Make time to plan. Juicing offers a whole new world of flavors, but also requires time to plan, prep and clean up. If you’re committed to improving how you feel, look and perform, it’s just like building any other habit. When I was trying to eat healthier, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear. The sub-title describes it as “An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones.” One of the ideas that I found fascinating is that, “the real reason habits matter is not that they can get you better results, but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.” If you’re trying to eat healthier, learning about habits is a great place to start. At least that was the case for me.
- Adjust your shopping list. If you decide to juice on a regular basis, you’ll need to adjust the quantity of vegetables and fruits you buy. This was an interesting shift for me. As I ate more vegetables and fruits, I bought more of them and less meat, dairy, and processed foods. The tradeoff is worth it. For me, it happened easily and gradually over time. The better I felt, the more I wanted to stick with what worked.
It Takes Time to Make Changes
- It might take a little time for your taste buds to adapt. If you’re just getting started with juicing, your tastebuds may need some time to adapt. Adding a little sweetness from an apple, a little spice from ginger and the punch of the lime result in a balanced juice containing about 80% vegetables and 20% fruit which is good place to start. As a population, we eat a lot of strongly flavored foods so it can take a little time to adjust.
- Drink green juice in the morning. The best time to drink green juice is in the morning on an empty stomach. Then, wait 30 minutes before eating something else to let your body digest. The juice will hydrate you after eight hours of sleep and will set the tone for your day. It also provides instant and easily digested energy without an imminent drop-off, as can be the case with caffeinated drinks.
- Try other fresh vegetables juices too. Green juice is a foundational drink from a nutritional perspective, but carrot juice is surprisingly delicious (probably more than you'd think) and apple, lime, red cabbage juice is a tart(!) but curative variation to keep in your juicing rotation.
Equipment
Juices do require a few pieces of equipment so it can be an investment.
- Cold-press juicer: I use the Nama J2 Cold Press Juicer. Nama juicers offer the newest in cold press technology that results in the highest volume of juice extracted from each ingredient. Their juicers make juicing easy. Just put all the ingredients in the hopper and walk away. They offer great accessories, creative recipes, easy set-up and relatively easy clean up (comparatively). I haven’t had reason to use their customer support yet, but will update if and when that happens.
- Cutting board: You'll want to cut your veggies and fruits up to maximize the efficiency of the juicer. Then, after you load the hopper, you can just walk away. Dexas makes a good quality cutting board that will protect your knives and counters. A wooden board is a beautiful and useful step up.
- Chef's knife: A chef's knife is a foundational piece of equipment you can use for almost all kitchen cutting tasks. The Wustoff classic 8" is super sharp and easy to handle. I have used one like this for years. It never goes out of style.
- Serrated knife: Use a serrated knife to peel and cut citrus and other fruits and vegetables with skins and peels. In this recipe, use it to peel the lime.
Storage
The best way to drink fresh juice is to consume it as soon as it comes out of the juicer. Here are some tips to reduce nutrient degradation and maintain freshness when storing freshly made juice.
- Store juices in airtight glass containers.
- Pour the juice to the rim before you put the top on it to reduce oxidation.
- Store for 24-48 hours to preserve freshness and reduce oxidation.
- If you need to store for longer, freeze the juice. Leave enough room in the glass container for the liquid to expand. Then, when you’re ready to drink, thaw in the refrigerator and drink immediately.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Consider This
Explore additional articles and recipes on the site to continue your colorful journey:
How to Make Green Juice at Home
Ingredients
- 2-3 leaves curly kale
- 1 lime rind removed
- 1 inch piece of ginger root
- 1 cucumber
- ½ small fennel bulb
- 1 apple
- 8-10 ribs of celery
Instructions
- Wash your fruits and vegetables
- Cut all ingredients to a size that will fit into your juicer
- Load the softer ingredients into the juicer and juice them first – in this case, load the kale, the peeled lime, and the cucumber first.
- Then load and juice the ginger, the apple, the fennel and celery into the same container.
- Pour into a cold glass and drink immediately for the freshest flavor and nutrient profile.
Notes
2. The whole point is to make it your own and have fun with all the different combinations on your journey to eat all the colors!
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