Greens Blend

Oh January, the month of discontent, of post-Christmas hangovers, of resolutions made and not kept, you come to us every year without fail and yet your arrival never ceases to spring an unpleasant shock upon our fragile optimism. Some may welcome your arrival as a fresh beginning, but I can only live through January. The dismal month is made tolerable by some great winter ingredients (and some frozen ones, so wintry in other ways) that I will use in building up my strength and resistance, preparing for February, the Attila to January’s Nero. 

This has been a fun recipe post for us to experiment with. We love smoothies and juices and experimenting with various blends meant that we were all cheered by the variety of tasty treats. We make almost daily a two litre concoction that is one of a handful of easy and reliable recipes, each of which revolves around a few available store cupboard ingredients. But for the greater good of the blog and its readership, we had occasion to delight in more than our usual daily dose of liquid goodness.

When we first went plant-based we embraced juicing, and it was really a gateway into creating more healthful habits in our daily routine. Juicing, however, we found a somewhat complicated process, and with too much cleaning up what had so promisingly started as a daily habit unsurprisingly quickly became a weekend habit and sometimes not even that. But juicing is great, and we have been keen to find a way to reintroduce the ritual and to make it a permanent habit. On our last childless holiday a few years back we went to California, where we found a farmers’ market every day (sometimes twice a day) and there we found that the good farming people of the markets selling juices were making their fare in blenders. Ever since then, the idea of blender juices has quietly bubbled under. So, we put the juices to the test and found that these were an easy and equally satisfying replacement for the conventional extraction juices.

We continue to love juices and I in particular find that I need my fix every so often, and we are certainly not above paying for a lovely, fresh cold-pressed juice (OK, so they are relatively speaking pretty pricey, but, remember, the most expensive juice is about 1/3 of the price of an average cocktail). For making at home more frequently, however, I find myself more committed to blender juices. They are less wasteful than the extraction juices as almost none of the ingredients and nutrition are lost. 

Since the experiment, I find myself making the blender juices regularly in order to satiate my juice addiction, which means using less produce and more water and often - depending on the ingredients - running the final blend through a fine mesh sieve. This process removes a little of the fibre along with any bitterness that can be a little too virtuous for the days the juice is consumed for pleasure rather than redemption.

The blends below are for what we found tasty, and we hope you like them too. Each of the below makes 1.5 - 2 litres of juice - enough for a thirsty man and woman and a little to spare. As ever, we expect you to give your own twists to these, so please let us know of your experiments and any suggestions/adjustments/alternatives - we love hearing from you guys! 

Blends:

The Orange One:

• 6 mandarines (or 3 oranges)
• 4 small carrots
• 2 small apples
• 1 thumb size piece of turmeric
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger
• 4 cups (1L) of water 

The Green One:

• 1 bunch of spinach (or kale or head of romaine lettuce)
• 1 lemon
• 1 celery stick
• 1 pear
• 1 5” (10cm) piece of English cucumber
• 6 raw cashews
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger
• 4 cups (1L) of water

The Red One:

• 1 large beetroot
• 1 lemon
• 1 celery stick
• 1 5” (10cm) piece of English cucumber
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger
• 2 small apples
• 4 cups (1L) of water

We use a fine mesh sieve that sits over a wide bowl and use a spatula to gently press the juice through and then pour it into glasses or into storage bottles (used glass passata bottles work well).

Scrub, wash and peel all ingredients, place in blender and blend until smooth. Run through a fine mesh sieve, pour over ice and enjoy.

When saving some for later, it helps to store them in a jar that can be completely filled by the blend to minimise oxidation.