Juicing 101

Introduction:

Juicing has been a key element in my journey towards a healthier life-style. It requires some time and money investment. As far as I am concerned, I don’t regret any minute or a single dime I have put into being able to make high quality juices at home. The benefits have surpassed my expectations. To juice, I use a slow juicer, and try to get organic produce. It’s not always possible to get everything organic.  As far as my personal access to organic produce goes here in Buenos AIres, I was able to spot a couple places in Belgrano which sell organic fruits and vegetables. One of them makes the trip directly to the fields in Hudson near La Plata three times a week. This means that on specific days of the week, I am able to juice organic produce that has been harvested a few hours earlier on the same day.

Equipment:

•  Slow Juicer: I own a Hurom HU-400
  If my memory isn’t fooling me, I purchased it in 2014 for about 325$ in Switzerland. Since April 2016 I’ve been using it quasi daily. I never had any problems with it. I didn’t even get to break a filter yet.
  I don’t have much experience with other juicers to be able to compare. My experience with the HU-400 has been flawless so far. I can only recommend it. It’s worth the investment I think.
• In-ox / Stainless-steel Strainer: When I used to live in Switzerland, I had access to a hard shaped nylon strainer. It belonged to my mom, therefore I didn’t bring it with me to Argentina. Believe it or not, I could not find a strainer as efficient made out of plastic in Buenos Aires. I finally got an excellent one in stainless steel (in-ox). I’m not sure which one is better in order to not damage the nutrient content of the juice. I usually try to avoid touching my soft green vegetables with metal. I don’t know if it’s an urban legend, or metal objects do indeed harm soft green vegetables. I need to do more research on this topic, but for now the stainless steel strainer has worked perfectly fine for me.
• 1 Wooden Spoon:
• 1 Cutting Board:
• 1 Chef’s Knife:
• 1 Large Salad Bowl:
• 1 Mid-sized Bowl (that can contain 2 liter/65oz. of liquid):

My Basic Principles for Juicing:

With slow juicing there are some basic principals that have worked well for me. Some of them I learned from Thierry Casasnovas, some other ones, I acquired with my own experience.

I want my juices to have distinct colors.

This means, green juices should look green, red juices red, and orange colored juices should be made from ingredients that support that actual color. The respect of the color scheme, will translate itself into the taste of the juice. When the juice has a nice distinct color, usually the taste makes sense too. The idea is to avoid brownish looking juices.

I try to favor more vegetables than fruits in my juices.

For example with my green juices I tend to add kiwis oranges and apples, to sweeten a little bit, and reinforce the liquid content. That said, I try to have a bigger proportion of vegetables. If you can menage to just have vegetable juices, I think that would even be better.

The order of introducing the different ingredients into the juicer matters.

If you are planning on making different kinds of juices within the same session, it will be a good idea to introduce garlic, ginger, and curcuma first. That way, by the end of your first juice, you won’t have much residual of these strong tasting ingredients, so they will be a lesser chance of them interfering with the taste of your next juice. If I am only planning on making one juice, I still introduce these particular ingredients first. Over time, I have noticed that having the strong tasting roots and bulbous plants introduced into the juicer first, tend to tame their strong taste a bit. This prevents them from not over dominating the taste of the entire juice. If a strong tasting root type produce such ginger is juiced last, it will tend to dominate the taste of the entire juice.

It is important to alternate different types of produce when you are juicing. For example, if you’ve introduced some kale leaves which tend to be lower in liquid content, it would be a good idea to introduce a juicier fruit next, such as a piece of orange or kiwi. The idea is to keep the filter chamber of your juicer well moist during the entire process.

Cutting your ingredients in to smaller pieces

I take the time to cut all my ingredients into smaller pieces. This takes some pressure off the juicer. Especially with ingredients such as celery branch which contain long leafy fiber. The same way, with any ingredients such as lemon peel, or watermelon peel which could eventually break the filter of your juicer, it is wise to do some of the job yourself, so you don’t challenge the juicer too much. That way your juicer will last forever.

Juicing the peel of certain produce

With peels we need to be careful. From what I learned from Thierry Casasnovas, and other sources. It is excellent to introduce lemon, pineapple, and watermelon peels into your juices. Rule number one, the produce where the peel is coming from needs to be of organic origin. The last thing we want is to juice some pineapple skin full of chemicals.

If the lemon and lime peels are excellent in juices, I would not recommend other fruit peels from citrus plants such as oranges or grapefruits. The reason for this is that they contain strong essential oils, and it may not be ideal for the human tummy. I’ve done the experience on my own, I would not recommend it.

Some produce are not made for juicing.

In my opinion strong ingredients such as onions or radish are better consumed raw in salads. I find them to be too strong in juices. I personally avoid them for juicing purposes.

Thoroughly washing the ingredients

I may be a bit anal retentive on this, but I do wash my ingredients three times before juicing them. I first pass them under cold water to get rid of the dirt.  I then place them in a large salad bowl, cover them vinegar, then add some cold water. I let them sit at least 10 minutes in the water vinegar solution. Later on, before cutting them into smaller pieces I wash them one more time by passing them under running cold water. If your water is filtered, it’s even better. If not, I would try to get rid of any excess of water present on your produce before juicing them. With ingredients such as oranges and grapefruits, of which I don’t use the peel for juicing, I still wash them once, so they don’t contaminate my cutting board and my Chef’s knife.

I filter my juice a second time through a strainer

I know there are different schools on whether to keep some fiber in your juices or not. I think that both can have their own benefits. I personally belong to the school that filters the juice a second time through a strainer. The idea behind my approach consists of bringing the maximum amount of micro-nutrients and minerals to the body, by requesting the minimum amount of energy from the human body for the purpose of digestion and assimilation. I rather get my needs in fiber at a different time.

Cleaning your juicer

I avoid using any soap on my Hurom equipment. I only use hot water. I place big salad bowl under my sink, and place my strainer on top of the salad bowl. I run hot water on the different pieces of equipment, and collect all the fiber inside of my strainer. Then I pass the water collected inside salad bowl through the strainer as well. This part is particularly important. If you don’t live in the US or Canada, and don’t have a waste blender incorporated to your sink. If you let to much fiber run with the used water, this will eventually clog your sink. Especially if juicing becomes a part of daily life. Once in a while I let the different parts of the juicer sit in water with some baking soda to sterilize my equipment. I recommend washing cleaning the juicer right after usage. I don’t recommend letting it sit all day with juice residuals and fiber in it. It will only get harder to clean later on.

 

For A Better Monday Style of Juicing Step by Step:

1. – I wash my ingredients thoroughly
2. – I cut them in smaller pieces ready to be introduced into the juicer. I only start juicing when all ingredients are ready to be introduced into the juicer. I put all ingredients into a salad bowl before juicing them.
3. – I start juicing by alternating the different types of ingredients.
4. – The extracted juice is collected into a container.
5. – Once I am done with extraction, I place my strainer on the top of a mid-size salad bow. The same I used to put my ingredients before juicing them. That way I am able to add the liquid content that naturally got out of the ingredients before juicing to my extracted juice. With such a high quality ingredients, every drop counts!
6. – I pour the juice inside my strainer, and start stirring with a wooden salad spoon.
7. – Once I have only fiber content left inside my strainer, I press the fiber with the back of my wooden spoon to get all the juice contained inside the fiber material. Once again, every drop counts!
8. – I try to consume the juice as slow as I can. I try to allow myself at least 45 minutes to consume my juice. I usually do some reading or stress-free writing work while I am enjoying the juice.
9.  – I clean the equipment right after I’m done having my juice. You can also clean it before consuming your juice. I used to do it this way. Surfing on the wave of delaying the pleasure I will get from having the juice; I would be able to get more work done before the long awaited moment.
10. – I let all parts of the juicer air dry.

Conclusion

The entire session takes me about a couple hours from beginning to finish. It’s an important time investment. To  be able to get more out of my investment in time, I’ve been listening to YouTube videos in Spanish in the background, while I am preparing my juice. This allows me to improve my understanding of the Spanish language.  As I also mentioned earlier, I do some reading while I am consuming the juice. At times, I take my juice with me in a transparent jar to the park. That way, in addition to the juice, I am also able to nourish my body with the sun and fresh clean air.  Since I’ve been taking my home made juice out, a lot of people started asking me what it was. To my surprise I could see that there’s a great opportunity to meet new people and convey my message For A Better Monday by taking my juice out onto the streets of Buenos Aires. Next, I want to take some small paper cups with me, so I can share my juice with people.

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I AM NOT A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I would like to make it very clear that I am only sharing my own experience on this website, and have no intention to give any specific advice on health. Please read the disclaimer section for more information.