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Juicing is really a very simple improvement to add to your daily routine, and juicing at home is fun, easy, and economical. You can produce an almost endless variety of colourful fresh juices which are brimming with health-giving nutrients. But of course, before you can enjoy the bounty of fresh juices, you need to know how to make them. Here are the guidelines to help you equip your kitchen and get the most out of juicing.

HOW TO JUICE

The most essential piece of equipment for any juice novice is a juicing machine – this is not the same as a blender, liquidizer or food processor (although some food processors may have a juicing attachment). A juicer separates the juice from the fibrous pulp, creating a smooth liquid, whereas a blender or liquidizer simply purées both fibre and juice together. You can juice by hand (Juicing by Hand), but it’s laborious to say the least!

Choosing a Juicer

To get the best value from your juicer, it should be able to juice most fruits and vegetables. You might be told that a juicer can’t handle citrus fruits – but that’s just because they won’t turn out like the ‘freshly squeezed’ varieties you can buy in supermarkets. Instead they look much thicker and creamier, because they include the valuable white pith that surrounds the fruit. With a cheaper juicer you might have trouble juicing stringy produce like bean sprouts, alfalfa, parsley and wheatgrass – so if you want to be able to juice absolutely anything perfectly it’s better to pay the premium for a more sophisticated model.

Make sure that whichever juicer you buy, it’s easy to clean and simple to put together. There’s nothing worse than facing a physical and mental assault course every time you fancy a juice.

Prices range from reasonable to very expensive, but if you’re just starting out, it’s probably wise to buy at the cheaper end of the range, just in case (and it’s highly unlikely!) you discover juicing isn’t for you. Investment in a better model is always possible later on. Let’s see what’s available.

Centrifugal Juicers

These models are at the lower end of the price scale and are made by companies such as Braun, Philips, Kenwood and Moulinex. They are electrically powered and work by grating fruits and vegetables, then spinning them rapidly to separate juice from fibrous pulp. The juice then runs through an outlet into a jug, and the pulp is ejected into a separate container. Centrifugal juicers cannot handle a huge amount of produce all at once, and must be kept clean, or they clog up with pulp. They produce thick, creamy juice and wet pulp (see Chapter 9 for pulp recipes). They are not as juice-efficient as some of the more sophisticated and expensive models.

Nose-Cone Pressure or Masticating Juicers

These models extract a greater quantity of juice from produce than centrifugal juicers because they put much more pressure on the fruits and vegetables. Rather than grating produce, they chop or churn it, then ram the resulting pulp into a mesh nose-cone from where the juice is forced out. Nose-cone juicers can be electrically or manually powered (when a lever system is incorporated). They tend to be able to cope better with the tougher produce such as rinds, stalks, and very hard vegetables; as a result they are usually more expensive than centrifugal models.

Hydraulic Juice Presses

Juice presses are the most efficient of all at extracting juice. This is because they can bring to bear the pressure of between three and five tons on your chosen fruits and vegetables. The press is brought down on the produce and the juice filters out through a fine cloth; the end pulp is reduced to a cardboard consistency (not much good for anything but compost). Hydraulic presses can be electrically powered or manual, but the former is extremely expensive. Nevertheless, the juice extracted from the press method is the most nutritionally complete of all the juices. They are available from specialist suppliers. See Appendix 2, specialist equipment.

Citrus Squeezers

If you really don’t like the thick juice that a juicing machine produces from oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit, then you can use a citrus squeezer for cleaner, thinner juice. You can buy a simple glass or plastic squeezer, or invest in an electric squeezer if you have trouble gripping the fruit tightly enough (those with arthritis or rheumatism may find electric models helpful).

Juicing by Hand

For hand juicing you’ll need a grater, a bowl, a fine sieve and some muslin or specially designed juice cloths (see Appendix 2, specialist equipment). Here’s how you do it:

1 Grate your chosen fruit or vegetable into a bowl.

2 Place the grated produce in the middle of a square piece of muslin (or juice cloth). Gather the edges into a bundle, and squeeze the contents hard over a bowl.

3 For an extra filtration process, tip the juice through a fine sieve into a bowl. It is then ready to drink.

Other Equipment

Once you have your juicer, you will probably need and find useful:

 a hard-bristle scrubbing brush to remove dirt from vegetable and fruit skins about to be juiced

 weighing scales to measure out produce

 a chopping board

 a sharp knife, capable of cutting very hard vegetables

 a peeler

 a plastic/glass measuring jug indicating millilitres and fluid ounces

 a large jug for storing juice

 cling film to keep stored juice airtight

 a blender for mixing juices with fruit purées, yoghurt, milk, water, honey and other extras (see Chapter 8).

 a fine mesh sieve for straining juice if it seems ‘bitty’

 an apron to avoid splashing your clothes with vividly coloured juice

Cleaning While Juicing

If you are making a lot of juice, clean the juicer once or twice under running water to remove unnecessary pulp. If you have put a very pungent or colourful fruit or vegetable through the juicer, run a little water through the opening to cleanse the innards of the machine, or chop up some apple and put that through the juicer. Both these methods prevent subsequent juices from being discoloured or tasting odd.

Looking After Your Juicer

Once you have finished with your juicer for the day, make sure it is scrupulously clean and dry, or you may get bugs making the pulp container into a comfy home. Every once in a while give it a thorough clean with a little bleach, to rid the plastic of any juice stains that might have collected. Alternatively, use a solution of bicarbonate of soda diluted in a small bowl of water. The better you treat your juicer, the longer it will last.

JUICE TIPS

Here are some tips to help you make the most of your juicing. They are simple but essential points of which you should be aware.

The Fresher the Better

Fresh juices should preferably be drunk just after they have been made, or during the same day. This ensures that they contain the maximum number of nutrients. Some vitamins are especially vulnerable to fresh air and can be destroyed in a matter of hours on exposure to it. If you are going to keep your juice, store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container or a Thermos flask.

Taste the Difference

The consistency and flavour of fresh juices is very different from juices you can buy in the shops. They may seem odd at first, but you’ll soon begin to prefer the texture and taste of juices made at home. They can be very thick, and are always much stronger-tasting than you will be used to. Some of them can look rather an odd colour (e.g. potato, grape, orange), and some of them are so vivid (e.g. red cabbage, red pepper, strawberries) you won’t be able to take your eyes off them! The key is to stay open-minded and not turn up your nose at natural fruit juices just because they don’t look or taste like the processed, packaged juices which are more familiar.

Unpalatability

If you find that certain juices really do taste unpalatable, try adding them to a ready-warmed soup or stew, to mask the flavour (cooking the juice will remove some of the nutrients).

Dilution

Children should always drink juices diluted, but if adults prefer them that way that’s fine too. You can dilute juices with still or sparkling water, milk, soda, even lemonade – however, you’ll find them easiest on the digestive system if you just use still water.

BUYING FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

What to Look For

Produce bought for juicing should be as fresh and as high a quality as your budget will stretch to, ensuring a better-tasting and more nutritionally complete juice. Watch out for mature and ripe produce, which will contain more vitamins and minerals. For example, although the mature outer leaves of a cabbage or lettuce may look unappealing, they contain the most nutrients and are therefore very valuable in juicing terms – just think, you won’t actually have to chew on a leaf! The riper, more mature fruits and vegetables will also be easier to juice, and easier for your stomach to digest. Avoid buying produce that looks as though it has been sitting around for too long, is bruised, going droopy, or losing its colour. Juicing uses up a lot of fruit and vegetables, so it’s probably best to do a bulk buy every three or four days to stock up on juicing ingredients.

The Benefits of Organic

Organic fruit and vegetables tend to be more expensive than standard varieties, but are now widely available. But why choose organic? First of all, their proponents say that they taste better, and second comes the reassuring fact that they have not been exposed to any chemical treatments. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or growth inhibitors (used while produce is in storage or transportation). This means that there will be no chemical residues, however small, lurking in the skin or outer layer of the produce. In addition, organic produce is not waxed; standard cucumbers, oranges and lemons often are. Organic produce often seems much riper too.

If a fruit or vegetable has thick rind or skin it doesn’t really make much difference, because the residues won’t penetrate the inner flesh, and you will probably have to remove the rind/skin to juice the contents. The problem comes with thin-skinned produce like carrots, cucumbers, peaches and apples, which we might scrub, but don’t usually peel. We could be ingesting an invisible layer of chemicals and wax without even realizing it. So why not peel everything? The best reason is that a significant amount of nutrients usually lie in the thin peel, and we would lose out by throwing it away. Buying organic means that you don’t have to worry about any of this and can juice whichever peel you like.

Now let’s look at some practical tips on which fruit and vegetables to buy and how to prepare them for juicing.