Juicing – Juice Health Benefits & Recipes

02 May

Best Passion Fruits for Juicing and How to Choose Them

Passion fruit can be used in many different ways when cooking or canning. One of the most popular is juicing. For veteran juicers, the answers to common questions regarding passion fruits either spring to mind or else already have answers. But for someone looking to just enter the realm of juicing at home with this fruit type, it can be more difficult. Look no farther for answers regarding the best passion fruits for juicing.

Passion Fruit Varieties

Not every passion fruit is the same. Originally, there were two types: the purple and the yellow granadilla, named such due to having been cultivated in South America. Typically, the yellow fruit has a very tart taste that could be termed “acidic.” The purple form can be much sweeter and “subacidic.” Crosses (called hybrids) between the two have been ongoing for quite a number of years and have resulted in some fine varieties, such as the Frederick, Kahuna, Red Rover, Pratt Hybrid, Sevcik Selection, and several others. When it comes down to it, however, the two best passions fruits for juicing are the purple Frederick and the Kahuna. The Frederick tends toward a tart, borderline sour taste that can be citrusy while the Kahuna’s flavor is quite sweet. The final choice is up to the juicer’s taste.

Finding the Perfect Fruit

Now that you have a choice between the best fruits for juicing, it’s time to actually find and buy them. Thankfully, some standard grocery stores will have them for sale, as well as specialty stores. They can be ordered online for shipping from producers in the U.S. as well. These fruits can grow year-round in some parts of the world, so finding them is not the issue. Peak harvesting periods come twice a year: once between August and December, and the second time between March and May. The fruit should be round or possibly egg-shaped, 1.5 to 3 inches wide, with a smooth, waxy rind. There should be no weak places or discolored spots in the rind (it can have white spots naturally), as it should remain tough even after it has wrinkled. Because they are the best for juicers to use, they can be expensive. Often spending more for a better product will yield better results.

When Is It Ready?

No matter what type you choose or how much you spend, both purple and yellow granadilla types start out green when they’re first growing. They mature to take on their purple or yellow (or in some cases maroon or mixed) coloration. When the skin darkens and wrinkles, the fruit is ripe and ready to use. It will last in the refrigerator for up to a week once ripened.

01 May

Best Peaches For Peach Juice And How To Choose Them

There are few things more refreshing on a hot summer afternoon than a tall glass of homemade peach juice. This sweet and aromatic treat can easily be made at home using a juicer and fresh fruit. Not all peaches are suitable for juicing, but the following list of the best peaches for juicing can help you choose the right fruits to create this refreshing drink.

Clingstone Peaches

Grown throughout the Northern hemisphere, these peaches are in season from early May to late August. Unfortunately, they may be difficult to find outside of farmer’s markets. Clingstones are aptly named because the flesh clings to the pit, or stone. With soft flesh and a delectably sweet flavor, these juicy gems are perfect for making juice. Just remember to remove the pit before tossing them in a juicer!

Freestone Peaches

More readily available at grocery stores, freestone peaches are so named because the pit is easy to remove from the flesh. Available from late May to mid-October, these peaches are less juicy than their clingstone counterparts but still yield a fair amount of juice. They also are generally the largest type of peach and still have a very sweet flavor that makes a delicious juice.

Choosing Peaches for Juicing

The best peaches for juicing are ripe, aromatic and slightly tender. A ripe peach has large patches of reddish-blue color with only a little yellow showing. Ripe peaches are also more rounded in shape and feel heavy. Choose the heaviest peaches you can find for juicing, as heavier fruits produce more juice.

30 Apr

Best Pears For Pear Juice And How To Choose Them

Pears are rich in vitamins and antioxidants, but most people aren’t aware that they are also a diuretic, which can be beneficial to those with digestive problems. Pears also contain pectin, which reduces levels of bad cholesterol in the blood. For those who own a juicer, fresh pear juice is an excellent way to enjoy newly harvested pears, and it can also be frozen for later use.

How to Choose Pears for Juicing

The best pears for juicing will be those that are fully ripe. Pears that haven’t yet ripened won’t yield much juice at all. If you’re going to be making juice from fruit from the grocery store, select pears that are soft but not squishy. If you’re fortunate enough to have a home orchard that includes a pear tree, pick the pears for juicing while they are still slightly immature. To ripen them quickly, place them in a paper bag with an apple or a ripe banana. These fruits give off a substance called ethylene that aids in the ripening process of fruits and vegetables.

Most people consider bartlett pears or bosc pears varieties to be the best pears for juicing. Asian types don’t seem to taste as well.

Making Fresh Juice From Your Pears

It isn’t at all difficult to make pear juice using a juicer. Wash the pears thoroughly and cut into small pieces, leaving out the stems and seeds. Put the pieces through the juicer, discard the pulp, and strain the juice through cheesecloth if you want it to be a bit thinner. Many people include a bit of apple juice when making pear juice to give it a slightly sweeter and full-bodied flavor.

25 Apr

Best Strawberries For Strawberry Juice And How To Choose Them

Strawberries, one of the richest fruits in terms of antioxidants and nutrients. Many people do not realize there are over 600 different cultivars of these delicious berries in existence. These strawberries are either organically grow pure forms, wild strawberries, or cultivated hybrids. Most of the berries you encounter at the grocery store are genetically altered hybrid versions of the former two.

What do people do with these strawberries? Most people purchase strawberries from the store to eat them plain or with sugar. A small section of the population cooks or bakes with them. A rapidly growing number of consumers have chosen to reap the benefits of this super fruit by juicing them.

Juicing the berries gives the drinker a super packed punch of the nutrients you would normally get from eating the berries. This concentrated version of the berry packs a ton of anti-cancer health benefits. These berries also contain a large dose of vitamin C which is linked to reducing bad cholesterol.

How do you know which are the best strawberries for juicing?

It is a well-known concept that most of the strawberries and other produce at the grocery store has been sprayed with pesticides to keep away bugs, wax to make it look more presentable, and/or coloring to make it appear riper. Some of these procedures are dangerous to the consumer and the environment. The easiest way to sidestep these unwanted additives is to buy berries that are locally grown and organic.

How To Pick Fresh Strawberries

-Pick only the strawberries that are a full and deep red.
-Be sure to test the berries for firmness: a ripe berry is firm and not mushy
-Check for damage to the berry from vines, twigs, and insects
-Ask where these berries were grown

Storing Strawberries

These berries will be much quicker to mold and go rotten than other berries bought from the store because of the lack of dangerous preservatives. Because of this, it is important to only pick enough berries to use in your juicer in a week unless you plan on freezing them. The very best strawberries for juicing are fresh picked strawberries that have been washed and hulled.

Juicing Strawberries

-Be sure to full wash the berries with produce soap
-Remove the hull from the berries
-Cut strawberries in smaller sections to better fit them in your juicer
-Add other fruits/vegetables to make up for the soluble fiber you are missing out on by juicing them
-Clean your juicer thoroughly to make sure it functions properly every time and does not get stained by the strawberry’s pigment

So what are you waiting for? Pop a few of these strawberries in your juice-maker and enjoy the health benefits.

24 Apr

Best Pomegranates for Pomegranate Juice and How to Choose Them

Pomegranates are a tree fruit that originated in the Middle East, but is now cultivated all over the world, anywhere where the climate is conducive to their growth. The seeds and the membrane that surrounds it, called arils, are the edible part of the fruit, though the membrane is where the juice is extracted from. Depending on the type of pomegranate, the flavor ranges from very sweet to quite tart. The best pomegranates for juicing are the sweeter variety and using them in a juicer is a great way to incorporate this so-called “superfood” into your diet.

Pomegranates are called a superfood because of how densely packed with vitamins and nutrients – especially phytonutrients – they are. They are also packed with Vitamin C, Vitamin B5 and potassium, as well as a lot more.

Pomegranate Types And Varieties

There are four main types of pomegranates grown for use in culinary applications. These are grown in various places around the world and are sought after for their subtle differences in flavor.

Wonderful Pomegranate: This is the post popular type of pomegranate grown for culinary purposes and is the largest of the commercially available types of pomegranate. Large and deep red, this is a sweet variety full of tasty arils.

Granada Pomegranate: This type has a very similar look and taste to the Wonderful, but it is smaller and deeper in color.

Sweet Pomegranate: As the name implies, this is the sweetest type of pomegranate cultivated commonly. Smaller than Wonderful pomegranates, this is the preferred variety for eating plain.

Angel Red Pomegranate : This pomegranate is large in size and is very deep red. It has soft seeds and produces the most juice out of all the varieties described. The Sweet Pomegranate is amongst the top choice for best pomegranates for juicing.

How to Choose the Best Juicing Pomegranate

Using a juicer is a great way to quickly and easily extract this tasty and healthy juice, but knowing how to pick out the ripest, best fruit can be a bit tricky since the good stuff we are after is inside the fruit. The following rules of thumb will help you pick out the perfect pomegranate.

Pomegranate season is from late fall to early winter, this is when the fruit will be at its prime.
Look for fruits that are bright and richly red.
Select fruits that are heavy for their size.
Avoid fruits with squishy spots, bruises or puckering.

21 Apr

Best Papayas For Papaya Juice And How To Choose Them

How Many Kinds Of Papayas Are There

If you are making papaya juice with or without a juicer, then your choices may be limited. The best papayas for juicing are the Mexican and Hawaiian. The Mexican red papaya is the kind that you would normally see in grocery stores. They are light red in color and do not have as sweet of a taste as the Hawaiian papayas. Hawaiian papayas are very sweet and yellow in color. However, not many grocery stores sell them. You would need to search farmer’s markets and specialty stores to find them. If you like a juice that is sweet, then the Hawaiian fruits are the best papayas for juicing.

Picking the Right Fruit

When you are looking for a papaya, you need to pay attention to the color. Avoid getting fruits that are green because these have been freshly picked and are not ripe yet. Choose a fruit that is bright with little to no brown spots. Make sure the outside of the fruit is hard and smooth. You can use the papayas to make juice by hand or in a juicer.

18 Apr

Best Mangosteen For Mangosteen Juice And How To Choose Them

A tropical evergreen, the mangosteen comes in several varieties but purple mangosteens are the most common for eating and juicing. These fruits have a very thick outer skin that cannot be eaten; this must be removed before you run the fruit through your juicer. Mangosteens are popular with juicers due to their anti-inflammatory properties and have been used in Chinese medicine for years. They may be difficult to find in American supermarkets, but should be available in an Asian market in most areas.

What are the Best Mangosteen for Juicing?

Mangosteens are extremely sweet and juicy, and are the only fruits where glucose can be readily harvested from the raw fruit. They grow throughout the tropics of Asia and are most popular in Vietnam and Malaysia. There are very few sub-types or varieties of mangosteen as the plant is asexual, making it very difficult to hybridize. The purple mangosteen available today is essentially the same fruit that has been eaten since they were first cultivated.

It may be difficult to find a mangosteen in America due to laws against its importation from Asia. Domestic-grown fruits are cultivated only in some areas of Florida and California as most of America is not tropical enough to sustain them. They are also becoming more popular throughout the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, so they will become easier to obtain in the US.

How to Choose a Mangosteen at Market

Mangosteens will be roughly the size of a billiard ball and have a hard dark purple skin. Once the skin has been opened, the actual flesh of the mangosteen is bright white in color and is divided into segments somewhat like garlic cloves.

The best mangosteen for juicing will be somewhat soft to the touch without feeling squishy. Fruit that is very hard is not yet ripe and will not have a full flavor. The bottom of the fruit will have the impression of leaves where the stem was removed; the number of leaves will correspond to the number of white segments inside.

You can cut open a mangosteen along its equator or simply squeeze it until the skin bursts open. The fruit can then be peeled and eaten as-is or run through the juicer.

17 Apr

Best Melons For Melon Juice And How To Choose Them

When you’re new to juicing one melon looks just as good as the next. But once you develop the juicing habit, you’ll notice that some of your batches taste better than others. The culprit is the type of melons that you use. Veteran juicers know how to pick the best melons for juicing.

Melon Season

In today’s global market you can buy almost any type of melon at almost any time of year. But for the most flavorful juices with the highest vitamin content, you should concentrate your melon juicing during the season for the type of melon that you want to use. Buying in season means accessing melons from California, Arizona and Texas that come to you relatively fresh and full of vitamins.

Honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon are the best melons for juicing in the U.S. because they’re available fresh and have sweet, crisp flavor and lots of juice. Honeydew melons are a late summer fruit and the prime season is between August and October. Cantaloupes are sweetest between June and September but are available until December. The watermelon season is longer, from April to November but the best time to buy is in the summer.

How to Pick a Melon

Thump the melon. Hold the melon close to your ear in one hand and thump it with the other. You are listening for a hollow “thunk” that means that the melon is ripe and full of juice, not hard and underripe.

Look at the color. Ripe honeydew melons vary in color from pale green to pale yellow. Avoid white honeydews. These are underripe. Watermelon skin should be green, striped and smooth. Avoid watermelons with overly shiny or overly dull skin. One side of the watermelon should be yellow or cream colored. Watermelons without these markings were harvested prematurely. Cantaloupes should have golden color. You can pick greener cantaloupes and leave them in a shady spot to develop golden color.

Next, feel the weight. A melon, no matter the species, should feel heavy for its size. While you hold it, look at the melon’s surface. Avoid buying melons with scars or other signs of damage or decay. Feel the surface of the melon. Avoid buying any melons with soft mushy spots. Honeydew melons should have a waxy, not fuzzy surface. Look for cantaloupes with tight netting on the skin.

The Best Place to Shop

The best places to shop for melons are farmer’s markets. What makes farmer’s markets the best? Melons from farmer’s markets are local. This means that they end up in the stall soon after they are picked from the plant. As soon as the melon leaves the plant the vitamin content begins to degrade. Head their early on market day and you can pick up a melon that was picked hours before it ended up in your basket. Look for organic melons and you won’t have to worry about chemicals on the surface of your fruit.

Use these techniques to pick the best melons for juicing and you’ll get the most out of your juicer and your favorite juicing recipes.

14 Apr

Best Elderberries For Elderberry Juice And How To Choose Them

Elderberries juice contains many important nutrients and is quite delicious to drink. It is also said to have medicinal properties such as being beneficial to those suffering from flu symptoms. Various cultures around the world have used elderberry juice as folk remedies for centuries. Elderberries commonly grow in moist soil along rivers and streams, and they are a favorite berry of foragers who collect them in order to use juicers to produce fresh juice. However, caution is advised when selecting the best elderberries for juicing.

Avoid Red Elderberries

Elderberries with black or purple fruit are recommended over those with red fruit. Many reports of illness have surfaced throughout the years involving the drinking of juice produced from red elderberries. Red elderberries grow in the cooler regions of North America and the fruit is a very bright red when ripe. Some experts say that if the seeds are carefully removed from them after they are picked, there is no danger of ingesting toxins from consuming them. However, the beginner should err on the side of caution and avoid them.

Harvesting Elderberries From the Wild

Elderberries resemble small bunches of grapes, and they are most often found growing wild in rich soil near water sources. Depending on geographical location, they ripen between the months of August and October. Elderberry bushes are quite prolific, so the proceeds of the harvest of just one bush may be enough to provide an average family with several glasses of fresh juice. Elderberries are easy to pick because they grow in clusters, but after they are picked, the stems will need to be removed before they are put through a juicer. This is best done at the kitchen table after returning home from a berry-picking excursion.

Making Elderberry Juice

After the berries are taken home and the best elderberries for juicing are selected, it’s easy to make them into juice using a juicer in the home kitchen. Elderberry juice produces a light and slightly floral taste that almost everyone enjoys. Many people use the juice to make elderberry syrup to use as a home remedy for coughs, cold and flu.

06 Apr

Best Tomatoes For Tomato Juice And How To Choose Them

Tomato juice is a delicious source of many vitamins and nutrients, but choosing the best tomatoes for juicing can be difficult. With a quality juicer and fine tomatoes, you can easily create tasty and healthy juice at home. The following guide will help you choose the best tomatoes for juicing.

Porter Tomatoes

These plum-shaped tomatoes are great for juicing because they yield an incredible amount of juice. With an intensely sweet flavor, few seeds and thin skin, Porter tomatoes are ideal for using with your home juicer.

Roma Tomatoes

Easy to obtain at grocery stores throughout the year, Roma tomatoes are plum-shaped, meaty and have few seeds. These characteristics make them great for juicing.

Mountain Pride Tomatoes

Developed by North Carolina State University, this tomato variety is ideal for juicing. Mountain Pride Tomatoes are large, flavorful, firm and contain very little seeds.

Choosing The Best Tomatoes for Juicing at the Market

Tomatoes are available year-round at most local grocery stores, but shop during the summer for the best and most fresh varieties. Select the reddest tomatoes available, but look for blemishes or bruises that may indicate a problem with the inner flesh. The tomatoes should be heavy and soft. Heavier tomatoes contain more juice. Smell is the best benchmark for ripeness. The tomato should smell fresh and slightly sweet.