The Greenest Juice – And What To Do With Green Juice Pulp!

Sun Diego Eats
Sun Diego Eats - Fresh Food & Casual Cooking

I did not always love green juices so I know what it feels like when you read an ingredient list for juice of all things and see things like kale and celery. So I am going to try to ease you into this if you are not a green juice aficionado, as they do not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. At least not in California.

There are three different versions of this juice, from pro-green-juice-master-level-10 (you can essentially just blend kale and water and drink it down / your pantry is constantly stocked with chia, hemp seeds, and maca / you are concerned about your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio) to baby-n00b-smoothie-level-0 (sometimes you get Jamba Juice / you were really impressed with Beyonce’s master cleanse and once considered doing it for half a day but ultimately decided against it).

Plus for the recipes where the pulp is strained out I will give you a sneaky use for the pulp!

The Greenest Juice

Anyways I was pretty excited that Melissa’s Produce sent me their Organic Green Juice Box because at the time I was feeling like this:

Death.

In Croatia we stayed at a hostel in Hvar where a lot of the Brits had a nasty cough I cheerily/mockingly nicknamed “Hostel Cough/The Black Lung” and although one of my friends contracted hostel cough after spending 2 weeks with her I emerged triumphantly unscathed. Clearly my sunny SoCal immune system was superior to those poor Brits, raised on nothing but meat pies and endless rain…That is until the next weekend when upon returning from a quick trip to San Francisco the first definitive signs of hostel cough fell upon me. Soon enough my cough was scary enough to make people within 20 feet of me either scurry away or stop breathing until I passed.

Weirdly when I am sick when I am hungry all I crave is sweets. Not sure if this is my body telling me I need energy or my body on some kind of end-it-all suicide mission. But its difficult to eat enough and especially to get my vegetables when all I can stomach is the occasional cookie. In part this is why green juices are so wonderful whether you hate or love fruits and veggies. If you love them, then you will probably love the taste. If you hate them you can get it all over with in one fell swoop! The bf hates fruits (I know WUT) so every morning he makes a super healthy smoothie with kale, berries, bananas, apple, chia seeds, and protein powder and then its all over. He gulps it down and he has had all is necessary servings of fruit and can go on with his burrito and sandwich-loving ways.

So here is the Organic Green Juice Box, I think its pretty great that its only $25 dollars for 7-10 pounds of organic fruit/vegetables with free shipping in Southern California between Santa Barbara and San Diego! Great for when are you too weak to make it to the grocery store (have I mentioned I get dramatic when I’m sick?) or you know, are a busy individual with ish to do and who likes things shipped to their door (and these days who isn’t).

Melissa’s Produce Box

Although there is a bit of month to month variation the Green Juice box I got consisted of kale, broccoli, leaf lettuce, chard, 3 cucumbers, beets, carrots, ginger, garlic, apples, and lemon. All organic to boot. And shudder I know people use garlic in juices as one of my co-workers used to always add it to her juices since it boosts your immune system – its naturally antiviral – but I could not bring myself to add it to a juice. Even though a great home remedy for eye infections is to rub a sliver of garlic on your eye. Makes you cry endlessly and it burns like crazy but it was something my nanny did and I have never had a real eye infection as it was always nipped in the bud with garlic. To make a long story short, I rather stick a piece of raw garlic in my eye than in my juice.

This smoothie basically has #alldagreenthings and it definitely made me feel better than my normal sick diet of cookies and tea. Here I used kale, chard, beet greens, carrot greens, cucumber, kiwi, mint, matcha, spirulina, coconut water, lemon and lots of ginger to make a smoothie with so much good stuff for you, you genuinely do feel energized and healthier. Really, just give it an hour or two.

RECIPE:

THE GREENEST JUICE
Serves 1-2

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of chopped greens: I used a mix of kale, red chard, beet greens and carrot greens but just kale will do
1/2 cucumber
1 kiwi, peeled
1/2 tablespoon of matcha
1/2 – 1 tablespoon spirulina
juice of 2 lemons
1 inch knob of fresh ginger
4 sprigs of fresh mint and/or parsley
2 cups of coconut water, or regular water
Optional: 1-2 tablespoons honey or agave

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the green-juice-pro: Use entire tablespoon of spirulina. No agave or honey. Blend it all until thoroughly mixed. Drink.
For the intermediate-level-juicer: Peel cucumber, use 1/2 tablespoon of spirulina and add one tablespoon of agave or honey. Blend for at least 3 minutes until very well mixed. Try it. If the pulp is too much for you try to strain half of the juice using strainer.
For the green-juice-neophyte: Peel the cucumber before adding to blender, use 1/2 tablespoon of spirulina and add two tablespoons of agave or honey. Blend for at least 3 minutes until very well mixed. Strain using fine mesh strainer. Or alternatively, put all the ingredients in a juicer.

Depicted in the pictures is the pro-level smoothie, I left all the pulp in because I needed all the help I could get.

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR GREEN JUICE PULP:

This works better with less blended pulp and also when you include herbs like mint and parsley in your pulp. It does not work well if you have sweetened your green juice or if you have a lot of sweet fruits in it. Or banana. Definitely a no on that. If you do plan on sweetening it, do it after you have strained out the pulp. I thought ginger would be weird in it but it ends up working well with the sharpness of the red onions. So the way to use your green juice pulp is……CHIMICHURRI!

Chimichurri

Chimichurri is an Argentinian green sauce usually used to top grilled meat, and its traditionally made with finely-chopped parsley, garlic, olive oil, oregano, and red wine vinegar. I have made chimichurri with various herbs and I like to add greens like beet green and carrot greens to it, as well as a dash of rosemary and mint.

So all you need is: 1/2 to 3/4 cup your green juice pulp (preferably with few or no fruits), 3 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs fresh oregano, 1 sprig of mint (optional), pinch of fresh rosemary (optional), 1/4 to 1/3 of a red onion, 3 cloves fresh garlic, chili flakes, olive oil, red wine vinegar and lemon juice. Finely chop all the ingredients that are not the pulp and not liquid, add in 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup olive oil, 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Or all red wine vinegar if you have no lemon. Add as many chili flakes as you like (or not) mix together and let sit for a couple minutes before serving.