Whizzing up a Storm

Ever since our recent splurge on this Phillips super-juicer, my boyfriend and myself have been whizzing up some magnifique fruit/veg juices - which certainly have been going down a treat!

A couple of days ago we stocked up on our essential ingredients from the local fruit/veg market and Yate's trusty Tesco superstore, and came home armed with bags and hands full of apples, carrots, and not forgetting two giant pumpkins - staying true to upcoming occasions, and all.

Then comes the fun part - the juicing!

The machine is powerful enough to juice fruit and vegetables complete with their skin, which reduces the boring job of cutting, slicing and dicing significantly. The beauty of this kind of juicer is that it separates the pulp from the juice, so unlike your typical food processor/blender, you're just left with the pure juicy goodness that has been squeezed from your fruit/veg. Meanwhile, you can use the pulp to bulk up a soup (though of course you may find it's too dry and thus lacking in flavour).

Back to the topic at hand. We made a delicious blend of pure carrot, pumpkin and apple juice - as odd as it sounds, the taste is - for me - unbeatable! The flavour of the carrot is most notable, but the pumpkin adds a unusual twist and an extra health-kick, whilst the apple provides that necessary hit of natural sweetness (note: the majority of the sugar in apples is from fructose, for slow-releasing energy - enough brownie points yet?).

If you hadn't guessed already, this juice basically has healthy written all over it. Carrots contain the active ingredients of vitamins A, C, E, K, and thus are absolutely packed full of nutrients and antioxidants. According to my handy energy drink book, the orange colour is a result of the betacarotene content - just one carrot contains enough of the stuff for your body to convert into a day's supply of Vitamin A (a vital vitamin for healthy skin, night vision and disease resistant mucus membranes - ).



Meanwhile, pumpkins are also a storehouse of antioxidant vitamins and are loaded with magnesium, potassium, zinc and dietary fibre. Perhaps most significantly for the athletic minded, pumpkins have an anti-inflammatory effect, so regular consumption of this mostly unappreciated* vegetable (*not including the Halloween season) can protect against joint inflammation and arthritis. Pumpkins have been known to provide relief from inflammation quickly, so it's naturally a perfect accompaniment to a go-to, post-workout juice.

As I'm sure you're well-aware, I'd wholly reccommend a fruit juicer if you're looking for a bit of a powerpunch/pick-me-up style beverage, and an almost guaranteed cold-free Autumn/Winter (ok, I'm not sure on the reliability of that statement but I'm going along with the idea of being sans-'runny nose face' for the next few months).

Anyone else a bit of a juicing-addict? Have you any exciting juicing recipes for me to test-run? I'm more than willing to use an assortment of ingreds to create that perfect blend of fruityveggyjuice.