The green juice is the holy grail of juicing… So I'm going to show you how to make your own green juice.
It’s all about taking leafy greens and reducing them into liquid form giving you the freshest, enzyme-rich and one of the most nutritious drinks you can ever have.
One of the biggest mistakes that anyone can make is overloading their recipes with fruits thus negating the potential benefits that juicing has to offer.
And this is the most significant argument that pundits have against this highly beneficial practice.
Benefits like increased intake of green leafy vegetables that are rich in immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.
While the downside is the absence of pulp that helps with your gut, you’re able to take in more because you don’t full as easy.
Don’t worry about the taste because you can add natural sweeteners like apple, pear or strawberry, it won’t taste as sweet as Jamba juice, but you can rest assure that the sugar content is low – which is what you want.
Now that I’ve convinced you to try green juice now I’ll show you how to make one with this infographic.
How to Make Your Own Green Juice
I’ve broken down the green juice into four different sub-sections – (1) Juice Base, (2) Vegetables (main ingredient), (3) Sweeteners, and (4) Optional Ingredients.
The juice base is what every recipe has. The main purpose for this is to add to the liquid content without having to add water
Cucumber is my favorite because it has a lot of water content and lemon is rich in vitamin C.
If cucumber is for some reason not available, you can switch to zucchini or perhaps carrots if you want to change things up a little bit.
The main attraction of green juice is leafy greens like spinach, collard greens, kale, lettuce, chard or even wheatgrass. You could also combine some of these greens together if you dare so.
But don’t limit yourself to greens. There are other non-leafy vegetables that are nutritious like beet, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and broccoli.
Try to mix and match leafy greens and non-leafy veggies – that’s the beauty of juicing, you can mix and match different ingredients depending on its availability or your mood.
Sweeteners
Here’s my favorite part – the sweeteners. This is what adds flavor to your green juice and to be honest with you, I don’t think I’ll be able to drink green juice without adding at least one of these.
I’ve tried pure bitter gourd juice and I tell you the flavor sticks to your tongue but I did that out of necessity because my blood sugar was at an elevated state – not type-2 levels but pretty darn close to it.
These sweeteners can range from a whole gamut of produce – my go to would be apple because it really balances out the strong flavor of leafy green.
I like to combine apple with lemon or strawberry since it really makes the recipe palatable. You can try other stuff like grapefruit, kiwi or grapes but based on my experience I find myself going back to apple as my main sweetener.
Don’t put a lot though. I maximum of two at most but don’t go over that because apple has a lot of sugar content.
Lastly let’s move to the optional ingredients, now these aren’t really necessary but if you want a different flavor perhaps something spicy, you can add something like chili or ginger to give it some kick.
You can also add some omega 3 by adding flax seeds – make sure that these are grinded before adding them.
Some green juice recipes for you to try out:
Recipes
Recipe 1: Sweet and Sour
- 1 Romaine lettuce head
- 2 ribs of celery
- A medium cucumber
- One Fuji apple
- Half a lemon
One of my favorite combos making green juice is celery, cucumber, and lemon. The liquid content of these ingredients are so high that you can make at least half a liter of juice – that is a lot! Suitable for two to three servings.
Obviously, with celery and lettuce, the flavor will be strong, but apple and lemon mask it well, giving you a nice combination of pungency and sourness without being too overpowering.
Recipe 2: Blood sugar busting diuretic
This is an example of how you can use juicing to help with a specific condition – in this case, elevated sugar levels. I used these recipes to help me when my sugar levels were dangerously close to the border.
I added apple and cucumber to make it taste better but if you have type-2 diabetes then don’t add any apple. My dad who has type-2 diabetes still drinks pure bitter melon juice as part of his maintenance to help control his blood sugar level, and now he is off his medication.
Recipe 3: The Green Delight
Here’s the beauty of green juice, you can just about mix and match any vegetable, in this case, I added spinach and parsley with ginger. Ginger is the perfect complement to green ingredients because of its flavor.
When you add the tartness of apple, it seems to be a perfect marriage of flavor. Try it, and you’ll see.
The bottom line
Green juice should be part of your daily routine if you want to start living healthy. It can replace coffee or any sugary “healthy” drink.
The key to a healthy body is not meds but what you put inside your body. When you start to transform your diet, you change your body and then your lifestyle. Green juice is a great way to jumpstart this process.
If you’ve tried to make your own green juice using this infographic or tried the recipes, let me know in the comments section below.
Very good post Jackie,
I never used to touch veg at all, i used to hate it all,
The i started adding veg to my meals and mixing it with thing like cheese so I could not taste them.
It turned out it was more of a sociological thing than a taste thing.
I then tried juicing and used to add a lot of fruit, so i tastes a bit sweeter,
eventual I did start adding more green and less fruit,but i still can’t stand cucumber
Progress!
I’ve always wanted to try juicing. I just found it overwhelming to do so. You seemed to have broken this down into a more simpler format to try. I do like that I can replace my acidic drinks with something a lot more healthy for me! I was worried about the bitterness of some of the greens and how to make them taste better. Thank you for that.
Hi Terri… if you get the veggie/fruit mix right, you will not experience any bitterness. And if you do, just know that bitter taste is very good for you.
I have always wanted to trying green juices but honestly I haven’t been brave enough. People say they’re really bitter? However, your post has convinced me to give it a go. The worst that will happen is that I won’t like it! Thanks for the combination chart- it really helps otherwise I would have no idea how to make it!