These Juicing & Smoothie Recipes Are Great for Beginners
Before we describe these great juicing and smoothie recipes, just a quick word about juicing equipment.
Blender vs Juicer
Blenders make lousy juicers! A blender and a juicer are two different contraptions with two distinct functions. If you want to separate the juice from the pulp, stems and seeds, you want a juicer.
Simply cut any fruit or veggie into manageable pieces - stems, peels, the whole shebang - and a juicer will extract the liquid and discard the rest. A blender, on the other hand, doesn’t separate anything. Rather, it grinds and mixes everything. It won’t create a juice. Rather, what you get is a thick "smoothie," but you must use a high speed blender to create a smoothie. Using a kitchen-grade blender will result in a lumpy soup especially if you use fibrous or tough vegetables such as beets, carrots or celery.
Delicious Juice Recipes
Now that we're clear about blenders and juicers, lets get down to business: delicious juice recipes. I'll mention several of my favorites, but really the best recipes are the ones you create!
Start with simple recipes using your favorite fruit or veggie. My favorites are blueberry, strawberry, carrot and grape. Or try my favorite vegetable juice for a quick boost of energy: tomato, celery, sweet peppers, and Worcestershire sauce, with a dash of horseradish, sea salt and black pepper. Try wheatgrass with orange or pear. Here's a fabulous favorite: broccoli with melon, apple or pear. If you're adventurous try almonds, corn and milk.
Recipes That Target Health Concerns
Then there are the more involved recipes based upon the nutrients most beneficial to improving a particular health issue such as heart disease, diabetes, or prostate problems. Or maybe you want to increase your energy, boost your memory, lose weight, make those wrinkles disappear, or give your child a nutrient-packed alternative to sugary fruit juices and soft drinks. Consult your local nutritionist, or purchase Juicing & Smoothie Recipes That Heal! available here in the box on the right and for Kindle, Nook and iPad users at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iBooks.All the recipes are based on the latest nutritional research.
Create Your Own Recipes
The best part about creating your own juice recipes is making use of your imagination. Start with your favorite flavor and add something interesting. Blueberry is my favorite flavor, and when I combine it with wheatgrass or cucumber what a wonderful surprise!
Speaking of wheatgrass, this and other greens are the only items you should use in moderation - no more than 1 or 2 ounces at a time - lest you experience some stomach distress.
Let yourself be creative and don’t be concerned about mistakes. Experiment with the tastes you enjoy. Start off with just 2 or 3 different fruits or vegetables such as carrots and apples and celery. You’ll soon have the hang of it. Then broaden your experience with some greens such as kale or wheatgrass – fabulously nutritious foods. Just remember that you really can’t fail when it comes to giving your body a nutritious drink – it just may not taste great at first! Greens are the most nutritious food, but very bitter, so it's best to blend them with sweet vegetables or fruit to kill the bitterness. But whether a juice of greens tastes good or not, you get fabulous benefits for your muscle tissue, glands, and organs.
A Few Quick Tips
So pick some veggies or fruits that you enjoy and juice away! If you're a juicing novice, here are a few tips. First, bananas and avocados will clog a standard juicer, so place these items with your already-juiced mixture in a blender.
Another important point is that you can juice the entirety of many fruits and veggies. An exception is the rind of citrus fruits like grapefruit, tangerines and oranges. But keep as much of that wonderfully nutritious white fleshy pith attached to the rind. Lemons and limes are a great example of citrus that can be entirely juiced, peel and all.
There are more helpful tips in my article on top juicing tips