um... the search engine is playing up. Hoping there wasn't already a thread on the subject!
Anyway, a uni friend recommends vegetable juices or veggie & fruit juices to survive the utter madness of this course, as well as to keep healthy through it.
After our conversation, I rediscovered my juicer and am planning to use it.
I know I will add ginger to it as it is good for the old mushy thing between the ears. thinking carrots or beetroot guessing celery sticks will add some liquid and prevent the juice being too sweet.
what would you add to that? wondering about oranges at this point!
I would love to know more about using juices for detoxing or for vitamin augmentation. I don't have a juicer, but use my very strong blender, so I get all the benefits of the fiber as well.
Annie, your mix sounds great. I didn't know that about ginger! I think oranges would be a lovely addition. Why not carrots and beets? Also, parsley seems like a natural in that mix.
First experiment this morning, with one very small cox apple, a very juicy minneola orange, one smallish carrot, and a little fresh stem ginger. doesn't half wake you up! doesn't half make a mess of the juicer, but I ate what the juicer discarded, bixa, inspired by you.
Jugo verde is a popular fresh juice combination in Mexico. Ingredients may vary, but one version I like starts with orange juice or apple juice, a few pieces of nopal (prickly pear) pad, carefully despined, of course; a piece of fresh pineapple, parsley, celery, a few leaves of spinach or even green chard. I have sometimes added fresh ginger root, and it's a good addition. I can't give exact measures, but I will say to go easy on the nopal, as an excess can make the drink look like monster snot.
Our jugo verde
Someone else's jugo verde
I don't often make this at home because it's a lot of ingredients to have on hand. By unplanned coincidence, I have all the necessary stuff except for the pineapple. Maybe I'll get up and make some for breakfast.
Sounds tasty, Annie! Question: if you make up a bigger batch & put some in the fridge for later, does it lose some of its health-giving benefits?
It sounds good, DonC, although I can't say that the sight of it drooling off the spoon is real appetizing. I've put it into gazpacho before & was quite pleased.
People in Mexico believe that nopal can fight diabetes. This appears to be grounded in fact.
Nopal taken for diabetes control is prepared raw in Mexico, as Don Cuevas shows it. The second article linked above claims that it must be cooked to extract its benefits.
This in-depth article mentions broiled nopal, but does not cover raw nopal. It does cover fenugreek and cinnamon, though, as part of a folkloric treatment of diabetes.
yes, bixabella, I believe vitamins will not remain for very long once the juice has been pressed, unless you take serious measures to keep them there. although refrigerating is a good way of slowing the decay of vitamins in food. but maybe I shouldn't speak because I haven't read loads on that subject yet.
Interesting about the health-giving properties of the nopal. I'd need to read more about it. um... would you juice the fruit known as prickly pear for it or the "cactus pad"? just want to make sure I understand. I have yet to try prickly pear, although I have seen them for sale in Europe. gosh I get muddled... better go and cook dinner!
Bixa; Nora Cris Cecco, a Mexican food blogger of some fame, commented to me that if liquidized long enough, the jugo verde will not be so baboso (slimy, drooly). I made some this morning, and it was fine.
The nopal is the cactus pad. The prickly pear is the fruit of the nopal. The word for the fruit here is "tuna", which gives English speakers quite a turn when they see tuna ice cream on a menu.
The taste of the nopal/cactus pad is very mild and slightly sour. The texture is pleasantly meaty. I often use them in dishes in which I'd ordinarily use okra if I had any.
If I had to compare the taste of the fruit to anything, I'd say mulberry.
This is how nopal is usually sold here, already de-spined:
The fruit/tuna:
At the juice and beverage stands in Oaxaca, you can get a horchata -- rice/cinnamon drink -- with fresh tuna squeezed into it:
I love all of these juices, but my own life situation does not permit me to spend much time preparing most of this myself.
Two fruit drinks that I have sometimes found worth the extra effort to make myself are.
1. kiwi/lime juice drinks
2. avocado/sweetened condensed milk with crushed ice
This second one was a major discovery from my first trip to Vietnam, and it actually wasn't I who discovered it but my friend Ali, who, having travelled less at that time, was actually more adventurous in not feeling wary about the weird concoctions of foreign lands.
"If I had to compare the taste of the fruit to anything, I'd say mulberry."
What's the local word for the red ripe fruit of the nopal plant? I had that once in the state of Morelos as a flavoring for pulque. It was delicious.
I may have mentioned, in my post on Zihua dining, that at one meal I had an agua fresca of cucumber and lime, a delightful combination.
K2; I'm surprised that the avocado and condensed milk shake has not been discovered around her in Michoacán. We have plenty of condensed milk (from condensed cows ), who live on the steep slopes of the avocado groves, just to the south and west of us.
I'm surprised that the avocado and condensed milk shake has not been discovered around her in Michoacán.
It was discovered. Then they put chocolate into the mixture & all died of delight. Trust me when I tell you that if you mix avocado, chocolate, maybe some cinnamon or ginger, perhaps a dash o'hooch, a little vanilla, sugar, & milk just right, you'll get something that will make you throw rocks at the best chocolate mousse you ever had.
yes, bixa! but it looks very much like a tangerine - the stem is minimal and seemingly empty in the ones I bought. and these ones are acidic like clementines.
Thanks! I actually knew about tangelos. Minneola is a prettier name.
I just had an early supper of vegetable juice. Well, I made it pretty thick, so it was more of a gazpacho:
water + cabbage, carrot, plum tomatoes, a couple of those long skinny pickled Italian peppers, onion, garlic, a bunch of fresh sage & basil, pinch of sea salt and ............. yum!
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doesn't half wake you up! doesn't half make a mess of the juicer, but I ate what the juicer discarded, bixa, inspired by you. ![[image]](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fDTYnsis0B4/TP37T9caVBI/AAAAAAAAl3Y/l9Cfr_hn2nk/s512/IMG_9449.JPG "[image]")
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![[image]](http://travelbymexico.com/blog/imgBase/2010/12/Nopal-assiette.jpg "[image]")
![[image]](http://www.backyardnature.net/q/tuna3.jpg "[image]")
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), who live on the steep slopes of the avocado groves, just to the south and west of us.