Deliciously Update Your Juicing Repertoire

Lisa Messinger
Sat, 10 Jan 2015 12:24:05 -0800
Lifestyle

"The Ultimate Book of Modern Juicing: More than 200 Fresh Recipes to Cleanse, Cure and Keep you Healthy" by Mimi Kirk (Countryman Press, $24.95).

The color that most comes to mind regarding "modern juicing" is probably green. What's touted about "The Ultimate Book of Modern Juicing" author Mimi Kirk, along with being voted PETA's "sexiest vegetarian" at the age of 71, is that she "started juicing long before green drinks were seen in the hands of everyone from celebrities in magazines to yoga enthusiasts on the street."

Green, as in kale, chard, spinach, cucumber, celery and parsley, has been filling many a juice chain's plastic to-go cups in recent years, and lots of green is changing hands for those hooked on the concoctions, which may also get a boost of beets, an addition of apples and newly hyped shots like acai, chia and coconut water.
Updated: Sat Jan 10, 2015

"The Ultimate Book of Modern Juicing: More than 200 Fresh Recipes to Cleanse, Cure and Keep you Healthy" by Mimi Kirk (Countryman Press, $24.95).

The color that most comes to mind regarding "modern juicing" is probably green. What's touted about "The Ultimate Book of Modern Juicing" author Mimi Kirk, along with being voted PETA's "sexiest vegetarian" at the age of 71, is that she "started juicing long before green drinks were seen in the hands of everyone from celebrities in magazines to yoga enthusiasts on the street."

Green, as in kale, chard, spinach, cucumber, celery and parsley, has been filling many a juice chain's plastic to-go cups in recent years, and lots of green is changing hands for those hooked on the concoctions, which may also get a boost of beets, an addition of apples and newly hyped shots like acai, chia and coconut water.

If you haven't yet explored these types of farmlands, Kirk, a certified raw food chef, who wrote "Live Raw" and "Live Raw Around the World," is an outstanding guide. Her straightforward advice should explain and motivate so much that your piggybank grows fat while you possibly grow thinner from whipping up your own homemade blends.

These include juices, smoothies and shots you create in a home juicer and a high-speed blender.

Kirk also hopes you will become healthier by following her examples. Her recipes are tasty and creative, but all have strategies behind them. She presents lots of longstanding and newer research.

For a papaya-based smoothie, Kirk writes about many possible benefits regarding the beverage she calls "The Rush," including the potential positive blood pressure-lowering attributes of celery. One of the aspects she notes about papaya: "Cleansing, digestion promoting, and immune supporting, papaya contains papain, which is an enzyme that helps with digestion."

As for her "Tower of Power": "Hydrating, collagen building, and anti-inflammatory supporting, kale has more iron than beef and fewer calories. Parsley can neutralize particular types of carcinogens. ... Hydrating cucumber and cholesterol-lowering celery, along with potassium-rich, anti-inflammatory, digestive- and collagen-building pineapple, can add immune building, blood pressure-lowering and potassium."

If you've ever wondered about much publicized juice cleanses or fasts, Kirk features a good primer that might inspire further study.

In a final section titled "Beyond Juicing," she shows that popular brews like possibly digestion-promoting kombucha and produce-infused waters are easy to stir up at home and that using the pulp from juicing can even be a further health inducer.

This is indeed a "modern" guide, but its most important legacy may be following up on already old-fashioned advice: Add more (or even just an adequate amount) of fruits and vegetables to our diets.

HOLY MOLEY

1 cup spinach

1 / 2 cucumber

4 celery stalks

3 kale leaves, stems removed

1 cup pineapple

8 mint sprigs

1 / 2 lemon, juiced

Yields 1 serving.

Juice all ingredients in the order listed.

THE RUSH

1 to 1 1 / 2 cups filtered water, coconut water or almond milk

1 cup dark leafy greens

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 cup papaya, fresh or frozen

1 / 2 banana, frozen

Yields 1 serving.

Blend all ingredients in order listed in a high-speed blender.