Savor It : Not Your Ordinary Juice

What do you do when you read a book written by someone that advocates drinking green juice? Not only did the author exclaim the health benefits of consuming green juice but also how scrumptious it can be when made at home. Will you first give it try by buying a bottle of pre-made green juice or embark on a lifestyle change by incorporating green juice in your diet?

I did the latter. Weeks after reading the book and researching for a good juicer, I bought the Omega 8006. When the juicer came, I was so excited. That very same week, I went to Whole Foods Market to get some red kale (red Russian), cilantro, apples, carrots, ginger and lemon. They are all organic by the way. Organic may cost more but if I am going to incorporate goodness in my body, I might as well go all the way.

The recipe that I put together called for an entire bunch of red kale, two apples, two carrots, half a lemon, a small bunch of cilantro and an inch of ginger. The preparation took 15 minutes. This includes washing the vegetables and fruit as well as slicing them up to be small enough to insert through the chute.

My new Omega 8006

Organic red kale, cilantro, apple, carrot, lemon, ginger

As I switched on the juicer, I was beaming with excitement. The sound of the juicer was actually rather therapeutic. The kale was the first to go into the juicer interspersed with cilantro. As cilantro is flimsy, it is easy for it to stick on the juicer without going through the entire machine. The red kale helps the cilantro through the juicer. Once the kale and cilantro has gone through the juicer, ginger and lemon were next. This was followed by apples. I saved the carrots for last as the fiber from the carrots is harder than most vegetables. The fiber from the crushed carrot will push any remaining vegetables out of the juicer.

 Vegetable and fruit remnants made into compost for our garden

Yummy! Green juice

The recipe yield two cups, sufficient for J and I.  J looked apprehensive and asked me if he was required to drink it. My answer was an obvious ‘yes’. As I drank the green juice, I was very surprised by how clean the taste was. It was actually very yummy. J begged to differ stating that it tasted ‘weird’. First of all, ‘weird’ is not a word that one would use to describe the taste of food. I figured his comment was due to the fact that he was not very fond of consuming vegetables in general. Nonetheless, I told J that as long as I am home this will be our morning regimen. Nothing goes into our stomach first thing in the morning but green juice.

I have been making green juice for a month now experimenting with different green vegetables. I have used dinosaur kale, green kale, Swiss chard and baby spinach. The base is always kale, apples, carrots, ginger, lemon and I will add baby spinach or Swiss chard to give it more chlorophyll as well as iron.

Dinosaur kale

While some loathe its color and the idea of drinking freshly made vegetable juice, I advocate that you should try it at least once. If not for the taste but at least for health. Or you can be like J who is made to drink it anyways. And each time the juicer starts you can hear him say ‘NOT juicy juice again??!!!’

**Feel free to leave word if you are interested to know recipes or personal opinion on the Omega 8006