Juicing for Taste & Health + My Favorite Recipe!

 

I'll admit that I'm not a fan of eating vegetables, especially uncooked vegetables. So about 8 years ago, I started my first attempt at daily juicing in an effort to "drink" my vegetables. I got my favorite recipe down --- Even my husband enjoys it, but the chopping and cleaning finally got to me. I think our veggie juice ritual lasted about 3 months, and then it became weekends only, and then...nothing. Now, this was 8 years ago when I was using the good old centrifugal bullet blender with motors loud enough to wake your next door neighbor. Oh man, my ears are ringing now just thinking about it...

Then about 5 years ago, I decided to give cold press, also known as slow masticating juicer a try. You know, one of those tall juicers which use a heavy auger to crush / chew-up fruit & vegetables rather than blending with fast spinning blades (Christmas present courtesy of my mother-in-law). This eliminated the noise problem, and I loved how the juice was even tastier and healthier. It also cut down on the process time since I was able to use larger pieces of fruit. This time, I used it regularly for about a year. Then finally, the cleaning got to me. Over time, pulp residues built up in the stainless steel strainer and it was such a pain to brush clean. Not only that, but disassembling the machine for cleaning was a feat that required the husband's larger hands (or risk skinning the delicate skin on the back of my tiny hands). I still use it here and there, about once or twice a month when work is slow enough for me to have patience to deal with the cleaning.
Until very recently, I was doing some research for a coworker, and saw that there are improvements made to most of the newer machines -- Then a debate like this went on inside my head:
 
Voice 1: Hum, these new juicers look easier to clean - Disassemble with 1 push of a button!
Voice 2: But you already have a cold press juicer that works perfectly well.
Voice 1: But look, no stainless steel strainer to clean!
Voice 2: You already have a cold press juicer that works perfectly well, and how often do you use it now?
Voice 1: But see, if it's easier to clean, I might use it more. Plus, look at this one, I can fit bigger pieces of fruit with the 3" chute to cut down on the chopping time!
Voice 2: You already have a cold press juicer that works perfectly well. Don't waste money.

Voice 2 won the initial round of debate and I held out for a couple of months. Then after juicing came up as a topic of conversation with 2 coworkers on separate occasions, I finally took the plunge and purchased this Orfeld juicer.

Initial thought - I love the 1 button disassembly and cleaning is SO easy compared to my original juicer! First test = passed. As for the larger chute, I tried to only quarter a large gala apple + navel orange + cucumber, half the celery + carrots, and virtually left entire kale stalks as-is. The result -- Ok, the large pieces are probably a bit much for the machine. It did chew everything up properly without getting stuck; however, it took some effort on my part pushing with the food pusher to get it all the way through the machine. BUT, it WORKED. Now, I have options when I want to be lazy at chopping.

My favorite recipe:

  • 1 large navel orange

  • 1 large gala apple

  • 2-3 stalks of kale

  • 2-3 stalks of celery

  • 2-3 carrots

  • 1/2 cucumber

  • 1/4-1/2 inch piece of ginger

Sometimes, I will also add a few stalks of cilantro for the antimicrobial benefit

Generally yields two 6-8 oz servings.

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

Back to Simply Home @ SoCal