How To Prepare Fruits And Vegetables For Juicing

Preparing Vegetables for Juicing + Root Vegetable Juice Recipe - Ben and Me

Nothing quite beats freshly made, nutrient-rich juice packed with a delicious flavour and aroma. The goodness of fruits and vegetables is how it offers plenty of nutrients and vitamins that are essential for your health. But getting to the pleasure and health benefits requires some knowledge on how to best prepare your fruits and vegetables for juicing.

Thoroughly Cleaning Fruits and Vegetables

Before starting anything, it is fundamental to clean the fruit and vegetables before you get started. This includes washing them in cold water or running them through a produce sprayer. The best way to know when something is good to go is when it has been properly washed and scrubbed.}

To be sure, rub them with your hands or a brush until your food scraps have been removed. It may sound like a time consuming process, however, this process has no shortcut and it must be done thoroughly as it is one of the essential steps for making sure that you don’t end up consuming any harmful bacteria. Additionally, when you use a produce cleaner or sprayer, make sure to also rinse them with cold water.

Other Cleaning Tips

It’s important to also take into consideration that some fruits and vegetables have a wax coating on them such as apples and other store-bought fruits. To remove this wax layer, you will need to either scrub the entire surface using a damp brush or use some acidic solution such as lime, lemon juice or vinegar.

Using this cleaning solution along with a brush will help you to clean these fruits and vegetables without harming or altering their nutritional value. Some organic, non-waxed fruits and vegetables may be cleaned using just cold water.

Removing Stems and Pits

It is important to note that some fruits and vegetables must have their stems and pits removed before they can be juiced properly. Fruits that may require that their pits be removed include peaches, apricots, plums and cherries. Others fruits such as oranges, pineapples and melons can be juiced without having their pits and/or skin removed.

The same concept applies to the vegetable selection, with leaves being removed from lettuce and stems from celery. In addition, thick rinds should be peeled as most juicers are unable to penetrate or liquefy these rinds very well. This is especially true if you are using a manual juicer.

Chopping Fruits and Vegetables

The size of fruits and vegetables which are placed in the juicer will depend on the size of the juicer’s feeding chute. Smaller feeding chutes will require that you chop your produce into smaller pieces in order to feed them properly. Larger pieces of fruits and vegetables may require that you cut them into pieces that equal the size of a tablespoon or less in order to make them easier to feed and juice.

Pre-Soaking and Softening

In some cases, you may want to pre-soak produce overnight as this helps to soften the produce. While pre-soaking adds to the time investment required to prepare fruits and vegetables for juicing, it will help to ensure that you can obtain the fullest nutritional value from your produce. This is especially true for fruits and vegetables such as carrots and apples that are known for their crisp and tough nature.

Pulsing Produce

If you want to obtain the most juice possible from your fruits and vegetables, you can use the pulse-juicing technique. This is where you instead of applying pressure to fruits and vegetables by using the flat juice setting, you use the pulse setting to break down the produce before applying pressure.

Possible fruits and vegetables that can benefit from your having used this technique are apples, beets, oranges, carrots, celery, cauliflower and broccoli. If you want to take this technique one step further, you can use a blender to break apart the produce into an even finer consistency.

Adding Water

If you want your juice to be less tart, you can always add water to the juice in small amounts mid-juicing. This can drastically help to reduce the tart taste of many fruits such as apples and oranges. Between one to three tablespoons is recommended, as long as your juicer features a water reservoir, as this will help to ensure that the feel and texture of your juice will be perfectly balanced.

Conclusion

These tips will help you prepare your fruits and vegetables properly so you can get the most out of your juicing experience. By first taking the time to properly cleaning, chopping and pre-soaking the fruits and vegetables, you'll be able to enjoy delicious and nutritious juice filled with all the minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants you need!