Here’s another juice that I’m currently loving that you can make without a juicer. Yaay! I love that I can juice at home without requiring the use of an expensive juicer. It just makes me happy. I have 2 other juices on the blog that you can make without a juicer as well, my mean green juice and my carrot, grapefruit and ginger juice. They all taste great and each one of them has a special kick to it from the ginger. I made this juice up one afternoon and Zoe and John looked at it and decided to call it vamp juice, because it sort of looks like blood, but don’t worry, it doesn’t taste like blood.
I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of beets. I mean I’ll eat a beet salad from time to time, but beets are a bit too earthy tasting for me. I do like the way the beets taste in this juice though. They blend in beautifully with the sweetness of the carrots and apple and the spiciness of the ginger. For some reason, I love ginger in my juices, as it lends such a spicy kick to your juice. This is the perfect juice to sip on post workout of for an afternoon snack. You may get some stares as you drink this and have people come up and ask you what the heck you’re drinking, and you may even get hit on by a few local vampires (on that note, maybe you should just drink this juice during the day time). You all know I’m kidding right? Anyway, let’s move on and make up some juice. BTW, if you have a juicer, go ahead and omit the water and throw the below ingredients into your juicer.
Reading: how to make beet juice without a juicer
Nutritional benefits of beets: Beets are high in immune-boosting vitamin C, fiber, and essential minerals like potassium (essential for healthy nerve and muscle function) and manganese (which is good for your bones, liver, kidneys, and pancreas). Beets also contain the B vitamin folate, which helps reduce the risk of birth defects. They’re great for the liver, as they stimulate the liver’s detoxifying processes. The pigment (betacyanin) in beets is a powerful anti-cancer fighting agent and that paired with the high fiber content of beets help protect against colon cancer. They’re also rich in carotenoids, which may help boot brain functioning and stave off depression.
beet, carrot, apple and ginger juice – no juicer required:
recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s all Good serves 1-2 makes approx 2 cups
- 3/4 cup water – use this only if you’re using a blender to make this juice, if you’re using a juicer, then omit this ingredient
- 1 large or 2 medium beets, scrubbed, ends removed and cut into wedges
- 2 large carrots, washed, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 large apple, cut into wedges (core removed) – I used a fuji apple
- a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
- 1/2 lemon, zest and pith removed
If you don’t have a juicer, then all you need is a good quality blender and a jelly strainer bag (see below photo). You can find these bags at most kitchen or hardware stores that sell kitchen appliances. I picked mine up at the local Ace Hardware in Larkspur, for those of you that are local. They cost $4.99 for 2 bags. BTW, don’t get the metal contraption that is sold with some of the bags, just buy the bags.
To clean the bags, just use some dish soap and rub the bag together till it’s clean and all the soap is off the bag. Then place the bag on top of a glass or something similar to air dry. These bags should last quite a while. I have used my 10x already and it still looks new.
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Let’s first start by washing your beets. I didn’t peel my beets, but you can peel yours if you want. I just took a brush that I use to scrub potatoes with, and scrubbed the beets while I rinsed them under water.
Chop off both ends of the beets.
Cut them into chunks.
Peel your ginger. To peel your ginger, just use the back of a spoon.
Wash and chop your apple into chunks (be sure to chop around the core), peel and chop up your carrots, cut your lemon in half and then peel off the skin. Peeling a lemon is just like peeling an orange. There you go, all of your ingredients are ready to be juiced!
If you have a juicer, then please juice away. If you don’t have a juicer, then follow along with me.
Get out your blender and pour in the 3/4 cup of water and then add in the beets, carrots, apple, ginger and lemon.
Puree all of the ingredients until smooth. You will notice that the juice is rather chunky.
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Take your jelly bag and wrap it over a large measuring cup or bowl.
Pour your juice into the jelly bag.
Don’t worry if your bag slides off the bowl, you just want to make sure that your juice goes in the bag. You can aways hold it open with one hand while pouring with your other hand.
Look at all that chunky juice! Yum!
Once all the juice is poured into the bag, remove the bag from the measuring cup or bowl and gently twist the top of the bag closed. Slowly twist the bag so the juice escapes. Keep twisting and squeezing the bag until all of the juice is released. I will warn you that you’re going to have some pretty red hands after, but the red will come off after a few good hand washings.
See all of that pulp that’s left in the bag! It’s a beautiful color, but not something I want to be ingesting. You can toss all that extra pulp into your compost.
Pour the juice into a glass and enjoy right away, or put it in the refrigerator for a few to let it chill a bit.
Like beets? Then try my beet, ginger and coconut soup! This soup tastes like beets, but the ginger, coconut oil and coconut milk help to soften the earthy flavor of the beets and gives them a subtle sweetness. The pureed texture of the soup is creamy, light and soft!
I’m a HUGE fan of these roasted matchstick beets with coconut oil. They’re a nutrient dense, vitamin packed, vegan, carb-free topping to replace the standard old croutons for your next salad or soup. Roasting beets in coconut oil brings out their natural sweetness, and their earthy pungent flavor goes dormant, and come on, sea salt brings out the natural flavor in any fruit or vegetable and adds a pop of crunch to boot! These roasted beets are caramelized and a bit crunchy on the outside, and soft and tender on the inside. Delish!
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