The Juice Extravaganza

We upgraded our juicer at the weekend. When we realised that our current juicer (that we bought second hand at The Salvos) was so large and loud to use that it was actually stopping us from juicing, we decided to find a "new and improved" version to try.

Without too much time wasted we found our new wonder juicer and promptly bought a bag of apples and selected fruit and veg to start juicing. I read the instructions first, which probably seems like overkill (I mean, how hard can juicing be?) but I actually learnt a lot! Four key juicing tips I learnt are:

• When juicing multiple items always start with the softest then move onto the harder items
• To juice herbs (I used mint) roll it up into a ball and push it through the juicer under another item (I used an apple)
• If you aren't going to clean the juicer straight away, leave the strainer in soapy water and it is easy to clean later (don't let food dry out in the strainer - it solidifies)
• You can re-use the pulp left-overs from the juicer! I always used to compost the pulp but I learnt that you can also make teas and use the pulp as a nutritious filler in soups and stews. I used my mint pulp to brew a GORGEOUS cup of mint tea. I am not exaggerating either, this was THE best mint tea I've ever tasted.

I only cut up half our bag of granny smith apples and that turned out to be PLENTY as a base for two different mocktails. At first I juiced everything separately (except the mint which went through with an apple, as described above); then tasted each juice and mixed it with the other ingredients to pick the perfect combinations.

Our original ingredients were:

• A bag of granny smith apples (and one lemon to stop browning)
• A bunch of mint (juiced with one apple)
• Half a rockmelon
• Several celery
• Half a dozen pears

The instructions were also helpful in suggesting certain recipes, however I prefer to experiment. The general guide seems to be: add watery juices to pulpier ones to attain a pleasant consistency for drinking (not too watery, not to thick). Using the ingredients above the best combinations were:

1. Apple, rockmelon and pear. YUM
2. Apple, celery and mint. Mmmm, refreshing.

One important thing to note is that when I brushed my teeth at the end of the day I was amazed to find I still had rockmelon juice in my mouth. Fruit juice can rot your teeth and as good for you as it is, it is not worth a trip to the dentist! So always clean your teeth after YOUR juice-fest.