It’s around this time I start getting really sick of winter. Reuben and I went down to the beach today and it was gorgeous; warm and sunny. I wish this was the start of the spring but unfortunately I know better. It’s merely the calm before the storm. Now’s the time to batten down the hatches and make sure we are looking after ourselves. I came across a bunch of photos I took when I made some vegetable juice recipes back in the summer and it instantly cheered me up! I just love a green juice. Does that make me strange?!
Anyway, to bring a little sunshine into our lives I thought I’d share my favourite vegetable juice recipes, including a lovely smoothie recipe from Jessica Alba’s Book, Honest Life.
vegetable juice recipes #1 Jessica’s Juice
You will need:
- a liquidizer/smoothie maker
- 1 whole cucumber, peeled and chopped
- 2 handfuls of chopped kale
- 2 sticks of celery, chopped
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 2 apples, cored and seeded
- 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger, finely diced
- Frozen watermelon or some natural sweetener like stevia
And the directions? Blend it all in your liquidizer!
TOP TIP: make sure you do it in in stages, cucumber and apple first, then add in kale, etc. Otherwise it all gets a bit stuck and you have to do a lot of poking around!
Vegetable Juice Recipes #2 with a Juicer
My liquidizer has died since I made this so I do a version with my juicer, as follows…
Juice the cucumber, kale, celery, lemons, 1 of the apples and the ginger
Blend (using my stick blender) the juice with the other apple and the frozen watermelon
Vegetable Juice Recipes #3 Swaps
Swaps…if you don’t have an ingredient, you can easily swap for something you do have.
Kale = spinach, watercress, even cabbage!
Lemon = Lime
Watermelon = pineapple, more apples, pear, kiwi, melon, any sweet fruit really…
TOP TIP: do not put a banana through a juicer! Add it to the juice at the end and blend. Same goes for avocado.
The only thing I wouldn’t substitute, if you can, is the celery or cucumber – try and use at least one in your juice as they are fantastic natural diuretics.
Vegetable Juice Recipes #4 Experiment
I tend to juice what’s in my house, especially if it needs using up! Tomorrow I have some beetroot (apparently great pre-workout fuel), a broccoli stalk and some sad looking spinach. I will swap this for the kale as I don’t have any in at the moment.
See what you have and as long as you have a mix of vegetables and some fruit, it should taste good.
Vegetable Juice Recipes #5 Carrots
I like my carrot juices simple, for example; Carrot, apple, ginger and lemon is delicious.
But I really don’t like anything too green mixed it! Celery or cucumber is OK but I avoid adding any other vegetables as a rule.
Cheers! Juice it up my friends xx
I love the variety on your blog! I have to admit, I tend to automatically grimace at the idea of greens in my juice BUT I think you may have convinced me with all that sunshiny talk and also the sheer logical healthiness of it! Lovely recipes, I shall give them a try in my blender. I do make freshly squeezed orange juice most mornings, and occasionally zap up a fruit smoothie in the afternoons. Thanks for linking to #AllAboutYou
Mmmm freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning! Sounds amazing xx thanks Zaz xx
Those juices are amazingg and I can get all those ingredients here in Korea wooohoooo!!!!!!loveee them thank you Hannah
My pleasure Maria!! I bet you can get a whole bunch of other stuff too, so experiment! xx
Love the imagery you’ve created and love the idea of bringing a bit of summer to winter! Thanks for linking up to #AllAboutYou
Thanks Luci xxx
Great inspiration, thank you Hannah!