I love veggie juices! (I am not making them currently because I am on a weight loss plan that specifies exactly 4 cups of veggies per day and I don't want to drink them.) I use a high-speed blender so these are whole juices, meaning all the fiber is still in there. Mine was quite pricey, $400 or so, but I use it almost every day and there is no comparison to my old "regular" blender. If you use a high-speed blender (Vitamix, Blendtec, there may be others in that category that I don't know about), you may want to add some ice into whole veggie juices so they don't get too hot while blending. It is a LOT of work to pulverize celery, carrots, beets etc.
I have made homemade V-8 juice but I still haven't gotten the proportions exactly right (still delicious, just not like V-8 juice). Hint: it is mostly tomato and surprisingly little of the other ingredients.
Quote:
V-8 Juice includes Tomatoes, Carrots, Celery, Beets, Parsley, Lettuce, Watercress and Spinach
http://eatrealfood.ws/homemade-v8/- 2-3 firm tomatoes
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 of a beet
Then add spinach, lettuce, parsley, and watercress to taste. Lettuce, parsley, and watercress are all very flavor-dense. Start with a small amounts of each, tasting the juice as you make it. A pinch of salt to taste and bit of lemon juice rounds out the flavor (V-8 uses ascorbic and citric acids).
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Variations include adding red bell pepper, cucumber (starts to get like liquid gazpacho), other leafy greens...
Here is another that I really like; I like the combination of ginger/lemon juice or mint/lime juice.
Quote:
Green Juice - 1 1/2 cups filtered water
- 1 cup spinach (also try other leafy greens)
- 1/2 cup cucumber
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 small bunch parsley (I would start with less; very strong flavor)
- 2 green apples (optional in my opinion, I like straight veggie juice)
- 1/2 inch ginger (or mint leaves to taste)
- Juice 1 lime or lemon
- 1 1/2 cups ice
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You can try adding avocado to that one as well.
Another hint: Lemon juice often VASTLY improves the flavor of veggie juices, it knocks back an overpowering veggie flavor. Our sons will drink veggie juice happily if there is enough carrot/apple to make it sweet and lemon juice to cut the bitterness.
Enjoy experimenting!