Monday, September 21, 2009

Red Carrot Juice

One thing I look forward to on the weekends is being able to juice. I probably get enough fruits and veggies in my diet, but you can never have enough. There are a lot of fresh juices available at the market, but we are so lucky to live in California with such great produce in stock all year round, so why not make them yourself! I love the taste and I just feel like I'm getting all these vitamins and nutrients into my system. It really helps me with my digestive tract too. I don't know what it is doing, but it works! I'll share with you my favorite juice combination. I also just improvise with whatever I have on stock.

Here's my recipe for Red Carrot Juice: 4 carrots + 2 celery + 1 beet + 1 small apple + some red cabbage leaves
The pigment that gives beets their deep purple-crimson color is a powerful cancer-fighting agent. Apparently its benefits are diminished when cooked, so it's better to eat them raw. But it's pretty hard to chew on a raw beet, so I just throw it in a juicer. Problem solved! I basically just throw anything that is colorful into my juicer and it usually tastes pretty good. There is no need to peel the carrots or apples beforehand. Be sure to throw in the seeds and all, because a lot of the nutrients from fruits and veggies are in the peel and seeds, so just wash them well and just let the juicer do the job. Pomegranates are great to add to this too.

If you don't like sweet things, try some veggie juice: 4 carrots + 2 celery + 1 large tomato + 1 small piece of ginger + squeeze of lemon/lime.

Here's my juicer at work. I used to use Jack Lalanne's Power Juicer, but I discovered this hiding behind the cupboards and it's much easier to clean up than the Power Juicer. I think my dad probably bought this through some Korean infomercial years ago, but I found a link to a website that is selling it, if you're interested. Apparently you can make rice cakes and pasta with this machine too.
The juice comes out below and the pulp comes out at the end. BTW, a good use for the leftover pulp is to use it as fertilizer for your plants outside. I'm sure it has tons of nutrients in it, so feed it to your plants. You have no leftover waste at all afterwards. It's great.

Here's a picture of the Red Carrot Juice. Bottoms up!

3 comments:

  1. this looks so good right about now. i think my body is not getting enough fresh fruit and veggies. ugh, i miss ca produce.

    meanwhile, i never knew you were such a health nut. you sound like a yogi guru in this post especially :) and with the whole no waste, fertilizer for plants...you sound like a sustainable living promoter too! haha

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  2. Too bad you are not close by, because I would make you some and bring you chicken noodle soup too. Take lots of vitamin C. And since you are far away, you should just get those bottles of freshly squeeze juice and get your nutrients that way.

    But seriously if I had my own garden, I would probably grow everything and just eat off of that. But then I would probably be vegetarian b/c there is no way I can kill a chicken, pig or fish. I'm trying to take baby steps! I hope you feel better.

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  3. hubby and i are big on fresh fruit smoothies... i can't get myself to drink carrot juice..

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