Green juice
My recent posts seem to have focused rather heavily around comfort food – all the carbs and all the fun. Sigh. So given that yesterday saw the official start of summer time, and that I myself have an impending beach vacation, I thought I would try and redress the balance with the ultimate in modern health foods – the green juice.
The flavour of the moment, the green juice is everywhere and seemingly the answer to all ills. These alarming looking concoctions can now be found gracing the menus of any brunch establishment worth its salt and in most high street sandwich bars – promising to balance out the ravages wreaked the night before.
But honestly, these potions really can be the perfect shot of health in a glass. I had my first taste of the real deal at a juice retreat a couple of years back, where these beauties were administered four times a day for six days straight. Just juice. Just green. Way to ease yourself in there Vick. However, after just a few days trying to convince myself that celery was my friend, I began to feel the benefits. Energy, vitality and a happy tummy. And yes hunger, I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But mind over matter, the wonderful feeling of lightness and the odd orange segment (no joke) helped that pass.
My takeout from the trip (apart from the sheer heaven of my first solid meal) was the power of the green juice. Ever since that trip I have been a regular subscriber of the green stuff. On the retreat we were educated on the various forms of juicing and their benefits. Committing to the cause, I bought a cold press juicer. The cold press or masticating juicers extract the juice from your fruit and veggies by first crushing and then pressing giving the highest juice yield. And they do this slowly, therefore less heat is generated, keeping more of the nutrients intact, allowing you to store your juices for up to 48 hours without losing any of their nutritional value. Good news. They also do much better with the dark green leafy veggies, such as kale and spinach, which are so vital to the green juice.
And so to my version. I try to have one of these most days, usually for breakfast. If I have exercised that morning I’ll add in some protein powder (I use the original flavour from Sunwarrior – a plant based, vegan variety) but otherwise just as follows:
Green juice
Ingredients
2 apples – the juicer the better
2 handfuls of kale
2 handfuls of spinach
1 stick celery
½ small cucumber
½ lemon
½ avocado
Ice
method
Simply juice the apples, kale, spinach, celery, cucumber and lemon. Then use a blender or NutriBullet to blend in the avocado along with a small handful of ice.
Enjoy and start glowing. I promise you, it really is rather tasty.