Have you ever bought a whole head of cabbage even though you only needed half? Or picked up a bunch of oranges to take to a soccer game that gets rained out? Or asked your husband to pick up a two-pound bag of carrots on the way home, but he grabs the five-pound bag instead? These things happen. When they do: juice to the rescue!
Juicing is my absolute favorite way to use up produce that’s leftover or past it’s prime. Buying a bunch of produce to make a nice juice can get expensive, but using what’s leftover feels virtuous. Most fruits and veggies combine well, and sometimes random combinations turn out to be the tastiest.
You don’t have to just use produce that’s turned. Consider adding a couple fresh green apples (lowest in sugar) to the cabbage and carrots. Or juice a whole cucumber with fruit that’s on the brink—the high water content will help extend and water down the fruit juice while adding a nice, clean flavor.
For the recipe below, I combined some older produce with the two new apples and a lime and it was so good I decided to record it here for you all. But this is just one combination—truly, the sky’s the limit!
Fruit and greens
Prep
Total
Yield 4 cups
Ingredients
- ¼ head green cabbage
- 2 green apples
- 1 cup purple grapes
- 5-6 kale leaves
- ½ pound celery stalks
- 1 lime, peeled
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Juice leafy stuff like kale or herbs first, so the juice will be rinsed out by the rest of the ingredients with a higher water content.
- Always rinse the juicer with water...adding a cup or two of water will also extend the juice so there's more to enjoy.
Notes
When juicing fruit, stick to citrus, apples, pears and maybe melons. Berries, stone fruits, and tropical fruits like bananas, papaya, and mango are better blended into juice to make a smoothie.
Watch what you combine with citrus...apart from carrots and apple, it seems to be to be the hardest to combine with other produce. But a frozen banana + fresh OJ=heaven!
Do not juice carrot tops, and go easy on beet greens. The former is poisonous and the latter can induce a cleansing reaction which is rather unpleasant (though they are exceedingly nutritious!).
Don't forget lemons, limes, herbs, ginger, garlic, and turmeric...these are all great additions to a juice. You can also add a pinch of salt or a couple dashes of spice (e.g. curry, cinnamon) to add flavor and variety.