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Meet my new medicine maker.

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Oh, how I love new kitchen toys!

Although my general food philosophy is that we should cook more, eat whole foods, and embrace our inner great-great-grandma, there are some gadgets that make life so much easier.  My food processor and Kitchen Aid mixer come to mind.

I’ve been ignoring juicing.  It seemed so … trendy.  And definitely not something that great-great grandma used to do.  I’ve been perfectly content (slightly obsessed, even) with making green smoothies and other blended nutrient-dense drinks which gives you the vitamin-goodness and also the whole-food fiber.

But then my friend Kate said something that changed my mind.  She referred to her juicer her “medicine maker.”  And suddenly juicing made a lot more sense.  

 

I believe that health is our natural state, and that our bodies want to heal themselves, if you just provide the right building blocks.

With our busy lifestyles, it can be hard to get enough nutrients every single day.  And if you’re feeling run-down or sick, you might need an extra nutrient boost that is gentle on your digestive system.  Juicing can do all of this.  Plus, fresh juice tastes amazing.  And ultimately, buying a juicer and juicing your own is way less expensive than going to a juice bar.  I was convinced.

But in this post, rather than teaching you something, I’m full of questions!  Juice-lovers out there, please read on, because I clearly have a lot to learn…

I bought a Matstone 6-in-1 masticating juicer, because after doing lots of research, it seemed like it would extract the most juice most gently, while not being too noisy, and still being easy to clean.  I put together my juicer (easy!) and decided to make carrot, beet and ginger juice which is one of my juice bar favorites.

The thing I forgot to check before buying was how big the feeding hole is …

carrot stuck in juicer

Immediately I got a carrot stuck in the feeding tube.  Really, super duper, wouldn’t budge, proper stuck.  I had to disassemble the whole thing and really force the carrot through while miraculously not breaking the juicer itself.  Yikes.  Not off to a good start.

It was AMAZING watching the juice come out though.  My little Matstone just chomps up the carrot gently and quietly, but then creates all this yummy juice (and lots of pulp.)

In the end, I juiced 1 beetroot, 3 carrots and a small piece of ginger, and got…

carrot, beetroot and ginger juice

…not very much juice at all!

Then I realized, if I’m going to juice everday, I’m going to go through a LOT of produce.   A lot.  Like, “I’ll need to go to the market at the end of the day and buy the excess produce” amounts of produce.

The other thing I can’t figure out is what to do with all that nice vegetable pulp left over?  There was a lot of it, from just a few vegetables.  I tasted it, and it’s fine, just a bit dry … could I use it in baking?  Or puree into a soup?  What would you do?

carrot and beetroot pulp

The last thing I found really curious was this advice from the user guide which says that you can extract the juice from pine needles:

juicing pine needles

Pine needles?  Does anyone do this? Why?  I know pine is beneficial in aromatherapy – but drinking it?

 

Juice lovers, I need your advice!  What do you do with the leftover pulp? What are your favorite recipes/resources?  And, have you ever juiced pine needles??

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  1. I’ve never got juice from pine needles but I’ve made pine needle tea. It’s a very refreshing and aromatic tea. Pine Needle tea has been used for centuries as a Vitamin C source to prevent colds, Scurvey, and infections. You can find here the receipt and benefits of pine needle tea from a Cherokee tribe site. http://www.thealapahariverbandofcherokeeinc.com/herbs.htm
    Gretings and love….
    Ayla

  2. I can’t remember which site I found this recipe on, on the internet, but I made a batch yesterday for the first time, and it was pretty good. Very moist… The pulp I used was from both frts and veggies. Can’t tell the difference in the end product. I had pulp from lettuce, celery, carrots, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and probably a couple or more things that don’t come to mind right now. Here is the recipe I used:

    Ingredients:
     2/3 cup brown sugar 
    1/4 cup milk
    1 egg
    2 Tbsp vegetable oil, mashed banana, or applesauce (I used banana)
    2 Tbsp honey
    1 tsp vanilla extract (or lemon or almond)
    1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    1 C all-purpose flour 
    1/3 C wheat flour
    3/4 tsp baking powder
    1/2 tsp baking soda
    1/8 tsp salt
    1 1/2 cups pulp from juicing

    Directions:

    Preheat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan or small cake pan; set aside.
    In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, milk, egg, oil (or banana or applesauce), honey, vanilla (or other) extract), cinnamon, and cloves.

    In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the milk mixture, then the pulp from juicing. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined, but do not overmix.

    Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack or cut your cake into pieces. The cake is especially nice with cream cheese frosting! ( I used NO frosting.)

    Hope this helps…SUSAN

  3. I made an apple crumble last christmas with the apple pulp, honey, and granola! just make sure to remove the seeds and stems – quartering the apple or using a corer helps with that :]

    I own a breville and i hate it :[ it’s a centrifugal type, not an auger type, and it not only sounds like a jet engine but also hardly extracts ANY juice and adds TONS of foamy sludge to the pitcher :[ i was thinking of selling it and buying the type you have, instead, but it looks like juicing is just not that great an endeavor! I’m tempted to make my own juice by just chopping my produce and boiling it, then straining the pulp out.

    • Hi Katherine, you might want to try a super powered blender like the Vita Mix (as Alissa suggested above) a lot of people love them!

      Great idea for a crumble, will give it a go!

  4. My hubby decided a few months ago we needed to start juicing, and I convinced him we needed a Vitamix instead so we could keep the whole foods in. Just to play devil’s advocate – why is a juicer more of a medicine maker than a powerful blender? I’m not trying to be a pain – I really respect your judgment, but I can’t quite get my head around juicing. Obviously not all of the nutrients from the veggies end up in the juice…finding other ways to eat the pulp sounds like a lot of work, and composting seems wasteful since you could benefit directly from the pulp and the plants are just as happy with scraps that we can’t eat! Thoughts? 🙂

    • Hi Alissa, thanks for your comments. I haven’t mentioned it yet here, but I did also buy a Vita Mix… 😉 So will report on that soon! Smoothies are great and I drink them often, but they are quite filling. So I think it would be good to make juice too, especially if you are feeling sick and need some gentle nourishment. I’ve also got a few ideas for juicing herbs for herbal medicine making too. Stay tuned!

  5. I love juicing! Though I have never heard of juicing pine needles. I was inspired to start after watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/) which I recommend to you if you haven’t seen it yet. You can use the pulp for soup broth, it bulks up stir fry, feed it to a pet, or just composting. Enjoy!

  6. I haven`t juiced pine needles BUT i usually use the pulp for making fruit or veggie muffins :). Greetings Ina

  7. p.s. pine needle juice-cool idea !I never heard or tried actually, but if it’s possible to exctract , no doubts it would be super-amazing product for immunity system to keep in banace .amanda, Keep us updated on pine needle topic 😉

  8. Amanda, Very useful shopping, my congratulations 🙂 . i use pulp
    1.in baking . The pulp is mixed with eggs, flour, some curd can be added , sour cream or whatever left in the fridge . I fry pancakes on the pan on vegetable oil or make a whole pie and bake in the oven . The only think I separate is beetroot pulp ,as I don’t like red colour . but sure you can try
    2 . for facial masks , some curd , yolk , yogurt , olive oil to be added, depending on the type of your skin.
    3. the whole body treatment . Idea is the same as with facial one , but it can be more aggressive, by adding some organic scrub ingredients like used coffee grounds, grinded oatmeal or rice or other grinded groats, clay .

    • Hi Maya, I found some recipes on the internet to bake with the pulp, so definitely will try that! Also might add it to my chicken stock for flavoring? And love the idea of a face mask or body scrub … great ideas!

  9. Lovely Juicer!, I give our hens all left over pulp so nothing goes to waste. Put yours in your compost bin? I don’t think there would be much else you can do with it. 🙂

    • Hi Anne, normally that’s what I’d do, but I don’t have a compost bin anymore (don’t have a garden in our current flat!) So I’m still on the search for other ideas…

  10. I, like you, was a skeptic, and now a devoted juice convert and proselytizer. My husband even did a 5-day juice fast with me in February! The summer is a great time to be juicing because of all the juicy produce!

    My favorite juice recipe: 1 bunch kale, 3-4 stalks celery (leaves on), 2 green apples, 1 lemon, 1 knob of ginger, whatever partial head of romaine lettuce floating in the fridge. Sometimes I’ll dilute it with water or coconut water.

    My favorite juice resource is jointhereboot.com, and Jenny at healthcrush.com has her favorite 10 juice recipes on her site.