J-J-J-JUICE!

In October, Sarah and I discovered a new vegetarian restaurant in Toronto called fresh and we loved it so much that we bought a fresh cookbook called refresh which includes juicing recipes...yay! At the restaurant, we tried the Singing Grasshopper Wheatgrass Elixir (mango juice, banana, honey, pure oil of peppermint and wheatgrass) which was super yummy!!! From that moment, I wondered what it would be like to have my very own juicer...would I use it? do I have the space for it? would it make me healthier? could I have juicing parties? I need not wonder anymore because I have my very own juicer...Jack LaLanne’s Power Juicer Elite!  In addition to juicing, I can also make soy milk and almond milk with it!

So another Christmas gift was put to good use today... I let Sarah choose the juicing recipe based on the ingredients we have in the house (being on vacation has turned me into a hermit so running to the grocery store was not an option!) so she chose the Refresher Cocktail. The recipe yielded two glasses so we ended up juicing the ginger, lemon and cuke into the first glass, and the carrots and apples in the other. We combined the contents of both glasses, stirred it, poured it then made a toast to the new juicer and drank. It was really good and soooooo refreshing :) I was impressed with the power of the juicer but not so impressed with the clean-up! In the end, I guess the juice was worth the time I spent washing the pusher, the blade, the chute, the filter, the filter holder, the spout and the pulp dispenser. Cleaning aside, if I had to rate the juicer based on the machine’s ability to extract juice and the dryness of the pulp, I would give it A+ because the pulp was extremely dry; I don’t think it could have extracted another drop of juice. I’m now wondering what to do with the pulp...it seems wasteful to throw it away! So it’s in my fridge waiting for some ideas...anyone?

Refresher Cocktail

It’s very important not to overdo the lemon in this vibrant cocktail so you can taste the rest of the ingredients, which are more subtle. The high silicon and sulphur content of the cucumber promotes strong nails, healthy hair and smooth elastic skin. Cucumber is also a natural diuretic.

½ inch ginger root
½ lemon, peeled
½ cucumber
2 medium red apples
3 medium carrots

Juice the ginger first. Follow with the lemon, cucumber and apples. Finish with the carrots.

From:
refresh
Contemporary vegan recipes from the award-winning Fresh Restaurants
by Ruth Tal with Jennifer Houston