Beetroot, carrot and ginger juice (without a juicer)
Hot off the back of my Beetballs, I was looking for new and exciting ways to use my new favourite purple vegetable, and so threw it into a morning juice. I don’t have a juicer, I threw it in my blender (admittedly a good little number, but that’s because it gets used ten times a day, so any blender will do.) I;ve written about making juice-without-a-juicer before, essentially pulverising your chosen fruits and vegetables in a jug blender with water, and straining it through a sieve, clean cloth or tea strainer to make juice. No bulky bastard-to-clean juicer required, just a blender, something to strain it through, and a spoon. Voila.
I could bang on about why I’ve chosen the ingredients that I have but basically it boils down to the simple ‘I think juice is nice’. Ginger, lemon and turmeric to help fight a cold, beetroot for the colour, carrot for sweetness. I like juice.
Makes 2 generous glasses:
1 raw or cooked beetroot (not the kind in vinegar)
1 large carrot or 2 rather small ones – or an apple, if you prefer
a small piece of ginger
half a lemon or 1 tbsp lemon juice – adjust to taste
a few pinches of turmeric
300ml-400ml water
Dice all of the ingredients, including the lemon if using a fresh one, rind and all, carefully picking out the seeds. You want the shoots and skins of your beetroot and the tops of your carrots too, don’t waste a thing. Lob them into your blender and cover with the water, and pulse to a bright purple liquid.
Place your tea strainer over a jug, or line it with a clean non-fluffy tea towel or muslin. Pour in the juice and strain. If using a strainer, stir briskly with a teaspoon to disturb it and extract the maximum juices, a human equivalent of the scary bit in the middle of a newfangled juicer. If using a cloth, lift it by the edges and corners, and allow to drip. Squeeze it to speed up the process if you like, but clean your hands with lemon juice afterwards to get rid of the purple hue.
Reserve the pulp – it can be used in a variety of recipes, including those beetballs, as a base for risotto; mix it with a can of tomatoes and a hefty pinch of salt and chilli for a pasta sauce to smuggle past fussy children and adults alike; add stock and make it into soup, or hold out for my beetroot and chocolate granola recipe…
And enjoy. If you want to keep them, it’s light and oxidisation that causes juices to discolour, so store in a non-clear bottle like a Thermos flask or similar, in the fridge, and consume the next day. I tend to just drink the lot, and sod it.
Jack Monroe. I’m on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr @MxJackMonroe
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Categories: 20p RECIPES, Blog, BREAKFASTS, DAIRY FREE, DRINKS, gluten free, Recipes & Food, VEGAN, Vegan Recipes, VEGETARIAN
Jack.
I don’t own a countertop blender. Will a stick one suffice?
yes but dice the pieces up small and use a splatterguard (or teatowel) to protect from mess!
Reblogged this on Angie Hewitt Artist.
I made carrot, orange, ginger and lemon juice earlier. Delicious. Might give this a go.
Wonderful!! I do have a juicer but it is such a pain to clean that I intend to try your method today – many thanks.
Yes, love these flavours when I do them as a smoothie in my jug blender, it will b delish as a juice too. I never could afford a juicer.
Imagine your juicer! I imagine things ALL of the time! Thats how I got my brand new juicer! Got it free from a lady who bought it and never used it! She brought it straight to my home. 😉
Bought a juicer, used it twice and sold it because it was such a pain to assemble, wash and reassemble! Will have to buy a decent blender and start making juices again as this recipe sounds delicious. Thanks Jack.
May I ask what kind of blender you use? Vegan for just over a year, I’m looking for a powerful one but can’t justify a £200+ price tag x
£60 Nutribullet. My old Sainsburys jug blender used to do juices like this too.
Thanks jack im gonna try it x
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This juice sounds great 🙂 I juice without a juicer and use nut milk bags, these work very well 🙂 I have done a post about it on my blog (I hope you dont mind me putting a link) http://thefunkycarrot.com/2016/01/12/ginger-ninja-juice/
xx
Hi Jack
Your vegan banana bread recipe has brightened up my week; I’ve become obsessed with making muffins using your recipe as a guide & tweaking here & there.
I only had extra virgin olive oil and ordinary white self-raising flour but the muffins are delicious. So far I’ve added chopped apples to one batch then date & walnut to another.
My week off work has been transformed.
I meant to add this pic to my previous mail but pressed send too early, apple muffins on the left, date & walnut on the right.
Regards
Robin Nicholson
Sound delicious, thanks for sharing. Have to try it 🙂
After crunching through the frost on the school run this morning, I opted for a very soothing bowl of beetroot, carrot and ginger soup, with some peanut butter and soya milk stirred in at the end for some vegan creaminess and protein. There’s still some beets and carrot left so maybe I’ll have juice tomorrow!
I meant to add this pic to my previous mail but pressed send too early, apple muffins on the left, date & walnut on the right.
I use grater to extract juice but sure blender is genius! I bet it’s a lot easier than grating and I’m scratching my head right now why I haven’t thought of that before. thank you! you saved me a lot of time and effort! ha!
Hello Jack
I make fresh veg juice several times a week and always use the blender method. I had a juicer once and hated it. There were buckets of wet pulp and tons to wash up.
I actually use a high power blender (now – but didn’t at first) and a nut-milk bag but the basics are the same. The bag was a great investment. It wasn’t cheap but I bought s good quality one and it’s lasted 2 years worth of squeezing to within an inch of its life. (A cheap one lasted around a day.) It gets washed with the dishes and goes in the machine now and then. I get a small ball of leftover veg pulp and no longer risk trouble with the council for the amount of food waste.
Some people use the pulp in baking but I’ve not done that yet I’m afraid so it’s wasted at present.
This method really is better than using a machine to do the straining bit.
Hi Helen – if you’re nervous about using the pulp in baking you could start by adding it to a simple cookie or brownie recipe and go from there? I haven’t experimented much with milk but am going to try to make peanut milk soon. I have a good linen napkin that I hope will suffice as a nut milk bag, with a couple of carabina clips. Fingers crossed:)
Oh I meant nut pulp for baked goods!!
I put my ‘veg pulp’ into curries, pasta sauces and bean burgers as a rule, but if it won’t be used on the same day, I freeze it in an ice cube tray to preserve it. It doesn’t keep well as the fine chopping means a lot of exposed surface area, which accelerates the enzymic browning process, breaking it down faster, etc. It’s 02:15am here and I am clawing at scraps of my primary school education – so apologies if it doesn’t make much sense!
In short, my basic ‘pulp rules’ are:
– NUTS/SEEDS – mix into cookies, cakes, brownies and breads
– GREEN VEG/FRUIT – add nuts/seeds, lemon, salt, garlic and a little oil to make a pesto. Freezes well or keeps in the fridge in a jar for a week with a layer of oil on top to keep out the oxygen
– VEG PULP – add mashed beans and some spices (cumin, chilli, turmeric, garam masala – you choose) and fry as burgers, bake as falafel, or just shape and freeze to use as and when
Hope that helps!! If you need any ad hoc advice you can tweet me @mxjackmonroe and I generally reply pretty quickly (unless drowning in work, in which case BBC Good Food and Lee Watson are your friends)
xx
Sweet root-veg pulp like you carrot/beetroot combination here might also be good as part of a dense/moist cake/loaf/scone mixture – sweet or savoury. I’m sure you could come up with something. I see you do a chocolate and beetroot loaf which looks gorgeous.
I love your ideas for pesto, burgers and falafel.
Lee’s book looks lovely and I’ve just ordered it.
x
I’m lucky enough to have a dehydrator and keep meaning to experiment with drying out fruit and veg pulp then grinding to make instant stock powder or fruit powders. They would be fibrous and really wholesome. You may be able to use a low temperature oven setting for this. I don’t know, you’d have to experiment.
YOU ARE A STAR, THANK YOU SO MUCH