While fresh fruit and vegetables are sparse over Winter, we deliver tips on how you can keep making homemade delicious, nutritious juices – no expensive appliances needed.
Creating your own freshly made juices is a great way to load your body with vitamins and minerals. With only 40% of New Zealand adults reaching the recommended 5+ servings of fruit and veg daily, we should find convenient ways to fill our diet with more fruit and veg. However, over Winter, cucumbers are up to six dollars a piece. Capsicum is no better – at four to five dollars per item. Today, we give tips on how to make your own healthy juices this Winter. We also share a collagen green juice recipe using fresh Winter produce.
How to make your own juice if you don’t have a juicer
Don’t have a juicer? No problem! A blender does a great job blending vegetables and fruit while retaining all the treasured fibre locked inside. Fibre is key for a healthy gut – it feeds healthy gut bacteria but maintains regular bowel movements. As many juicers remove fibre (as the pulp), blending can be more beneficial than traditional ‘juicing’.
Using ‘odds and ends’ for juice
That mangled celery at the back of your fridge is the perfect candidate for fresh juice. Any old or spare odds and ends can make their way into a juice. You would be surprised at what a quarter of a carrot, a stalk of celery and half a lemon can make you!
Why buy fruit and veg in season?
Buying your fruit and vegetables in season means you’re buying what is naturally and locally growing at that time of year. Because you’re purchasing items growing abundantly – they are cheaper. They also ripen naturally, which helps preserve the nutrients inside. Lastly, buying seasonally usually means shopping locally – this is better for our environment as there is less transport used (than say, shipping a mango from Mexico).
Freezers are your friends not foe
Frozen vegetables not only last for longer but also retain their nutrients. Buy frozen kale and spinach bunches for a quick yet affordable addition to your green juice. Freezing ginger keeps it lasting for longer. As ginger is hard to cut when frozen, grate it instead (you don’t need to peel it). Not to mention, frozen berries are a fraction of the cost of fresh berries over Winter!
The best Winter seasonal produce for juicing
In New Zealand, we have great Winter produce available that we should make the most of:
- Limes – in Summer, limes can range up to seventy dollars per kilo. Make the most of limes now, at only five dollars per kilo – limes are full of vitamin C & A, flavonoids and potassium. One lime may offer up to 30% of your daily vitamin C needs!
- Lemons – like limes, lemons are packed with vitamins and minerals. They are affordable and versatile during Winter; find a friend with a tree full of them or purchase them from your local grocer.
- Kiwifruit – in our opinion, the best addition to a juice is kiwifruit. Not only sweet and tangy, kiwifruit are packed with the good stuff. Both green and gold varieties contain high levels of vitamin C, fibre, actinidin (which helps the digestive system to break down food), potassium and folate.
- Oranges – Summer oranges are no match for Winter oranges. In Winter, New Zealand oranges are intensely sweet and burst with natural juice. Like the other citrus fruit mentioned above, oranges are filled to the brim with vitamin C.
- Pears – a nice change from apples, pears contain high amounts of vitamins C & K, potassium and fibre.
- Grapefruit – the last citrus fruit on the list, grapefruit are tangy and tart. Low in calories yet high in nutrients – they boast high levels of vitamin C & A and fibre. Grapefruit interacts with certain medications and herbal supplements – it is best to ask your doctor before consuming regularly.
- Kale – spinach’s tough cousin, kale touts as one of our planet’s finest superfoods. While it is low in calories, it is nutrient dense. Kale has exceptionally high amounts of Vitamin A, K, C and manganese. It also contains many antioxidants.
- Fennel – not your typical juice ingredient, fennel has a unique liquorice flavour and medicinal properties. Traditionally used in herbal supplements for detoxification and debloating; fennel is a good addition for those looking to soothe an aching tummy or overworked liver. Fennel bulb also contains vitamin C, fibre and minerals like potassium, manganese and calcium.
Winter Skin-Glow Collagen Green Juice
Zingy, tart, with a touch of sweet. The perfect pick-me-up to boost your immune system, deliver skin-loving nutrients and gives your liver a helping hand.
Swap in any ingredients you feel! Remember to wash your kale beforehand, as dirt can hide in its curly fronds. This juice includes 4 of your 5+ servings of daily vegetables and fruit!
Ingredients:
- 1 lime (skin cut off)
- 1 grapefruit (skin cut off)
- 2 stems of kale (thick stems trimmed)
- 2 kiwifruit (you can peel or leave the skin on)
- 1/2 a pear
- 1/4 of fennel bulb
- 1 tsp of chia seeds
- 1 11g serving of Pro You Marine Collagen Beauty Blend
Method:
- Blend all fruit, vegetables and chia seeds well until finely blended. If you want it cold, add an ice cube before blending.
- Stir in Pro You Marine Collagen Beauty Blend.
- Enjoy!
