Sips of Spring: 7 Fresh Juices Packed with Produce

Sips of Spring: 7 Fresh Juices Packed with Produce
Sips of Spring: 7 Fresh Juices Packed with Produce

By Breana Lai, M.P.H., R.D., Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

Excited to start making your own healthy, fresh juice at home? We've created the 7-day juice plan below to be a start to harnessing your juicing enthusiasm! (Note: This is not a juice fast- these juices are meant to be consumed in addition to regular meals and snacks, not as a meal replacement.) You'll find tips and recipes to help you get started juicing or, if you're already a home-juicing enthusiast, to give you new ideas for your juicer, a shopping list, how-to-juice tips, juicer-buying advice and method for how to juice with a blender. Each of our 7 healthy homemade juice recipes provides about a quarter of the average daily recommended fruit and vegetables per glass (5 ½ cups for a 2,000-calorie diet). Several studies show that adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet can improve your mental health and sense of well-being, yet most of us don't get enough. While smoothies generally contain more fiber (because the whole piece of produce ends up in the final product) and more fruit, fresh juices can be loaded with dark leafy greens and lots of red, orange and/or purple vegetables to help maximize the nutrients in every glass.

Don't Miss: Download a FREE 7-Day Juice Plan with Healthy Juice Recipes!

Watch Now: How to Juice With & Without a Juicer

How To Juice: 6 Steps & Expert Tips:
1. Wash all fruits, vegetables and herbs well-no need to dry them.
2. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for juicing-every juicer machine is different.
3. Add the most delicate ingredients first, such as leafy greens and herbs.
4. Follow with soft vegetables and/or fruits (tomatoes, berries, etc.).
5. Finish with hard vegetables and/or fruits (apples, celery, etc.). Our recipe ingredients are listed in this order.
6. Drink fresh juice within a day or freeze it.

7-Day Juice Plan
Juices are great any time of day but are a nice addition to a healthy breakfast or as a snack.
(Note: Each recipe makes two 8- to 10-ounce servings of juice.)

Green Juice
Green Juice

Day 1: Green Juice
Fun Fact: The celery and parsley in this juice deliver apigenin, a compound that promotes the death of cancerous cells, according to new research from Ohio State University.

Get the Recipe: Green Juice


Tomato-Vegetable Juice
Tomato-Vegetable Juice

Day 2: Tomato-Vegetable Juice
Fun Fact: When people drank a glass of vegetable juice daily, they got double the veggie servings of people who just tried eating more vegetables.

Get the Recipe: Tomato-Vegetable Juice


Strawberry-Cucumber Juice
Strawberry-Cucumber Juice

Day 3: Strawberry-Cucumber Juice
Fun Fact: Strawberries are the third-best food source of polyphenols, antioxidants believed to reduce risk of cancer and heart disease, which Harvard researchers have shown help keep your teeth healthy.

Get the Recipe: Strawberry-Cucumber Juice


Blueberry-Cabbage Power Juice
Blueberry-Cabbage Power Juice

Day 4: Blueberry-Cabbage Power Juice
Fun Fact: Red cabbage and blueberries pack this juice with anthocyanins, which may help keep your memory sharp.

Get the Recipe: Blueberry-Cabbage Power Juice


Spinach-Apple Juice
Spinach-Apple Juice

Day 5: Spinach-Apple Juice
Fun Fact: The spinach in this juice provides a healthy dose of vitamin K, which helps keep your bones strong.

Get the Recipe: Spinach-Apple Juice


Ginger-Beet Juice
Ginger-Beet Juice

Day 6: Ginger-Beet Juice
Fun Fact: Drinking beet juice before a workout may increase your stamina by boosting blood flow, which gets your muscles the fuel and oxygen they need.

Get the Recipe: Ginger-Beet Juice


Carrot-Orange Juice
Carrot-Orange Juice

Day 7: Carrot-Orange Juice
Fun Fact: When people washed down a high-fat meal with a vitamin-C-rich fruit juice (this one provides 66% daily value) they had significantly lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood versus those who drank a placebo.

Get the Recipe: Carrot-Orange Juice


Tips For How To Buy The Best Juicer
There are many types of juicers on the market, but they can all be classified into two main categories: high-speed (a.k.a. centrifugal juicers) or low-speed (a.k.a. masticating, cold-press or low-revolution-per-minute juicers).

High-speed juicers process fruits and vegetables at a higher speed through contact with a spinning shredder against a mesh filter, creating a "centrifuge" force. With nonejection types, the pulp remains in the shredder basket; with automatic-ejection types, the pulp is discarded into a separate waste basket. High-speed juicers tend to be less expensive, however proponents of the raw food movement say the heat produced along with the high speed may break down some of the nutrients as the juice is extracted.

Recommended high-speed juicer: Breville Juice Fountain Plus

Low-speed juicers process fruits and vegetables at a lower speed, thereby producing less heat and noise and extracting more juice than high-speed juicers. For leafy greens, such as spinach and kale, low-speed juicers are best. There are two types of low-speed juicers: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal and vertical low-speed juicers differ mainly in shape, with the vertical juicer being more compact and the horizontal juicer requiring more counter space. However, horizontal juicers have more versatility because they offer the ability to create homemade nut butters, pasta and baby food. Low-speed juicers are more expensive, but ideal if you want to make juices that include a lot of leafy greens.

Recommended low-speed juicers: Ronco Smart Juicer, Omega 8006 and Green Star Elite

How To Make Juice With A Blender
No juicer? No problem. Try this low-tech version for how to make juice without a juicer.

1. Coarsely chop all ingredients.
2. First, place the soft and/or juice ingredients in the blender and process until liquefied. Then, add the remaining ingredients; blend until liquefied.
3. Cut two 24-inch pieces of cheesecloth. Completely unfold each piece and stack the pieces on top of each other. Fold the double stack in half so you have a 4-layer stack of cloth.
4. Line a large bowl with the cheesecloth and pour the contents of the blender into the center. Gather the edges of the cloth together with one hand and use the other hand to twist and squeeze to extract all the juice from the pulp. If you don't want stained hands, wear rubber gloves.

By Breana Lai, M.P.H., R.D.

Breana Lai
Breana Lai

Breana Lai, M.P.H., R.D., is an Associate Food Editor at EatingWell where she splits her time between EatingWell magazine, eatingwell.com, and cooking new healthy recipes in the test kitchen. Breana has a master's degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu London, a Wine Spirit & Education Trust trained sommelier and is a registered dietitian.