Green Juice 101. How-to.

Green Juice gets a lot of buzz. But unlike more pedestrian juices like apple, orange and grape - "Green Juice" has an alluring level of mystery to it.

Green Potion. When I first heard the term green juice, I figured that it was some powerful health tonic or potion, the recipe a well-kept secret. But really, the term green juice, is meant to describe any juice - that is in fact some shade of the color green. Green juice may be a combination of fruit and veggies or it may be 100% veggies. Green Juice ingredients may be 100% crisp green, or a rainbow of colors.

Veggie Haters Drink Up. Many people might logically assume that if they hate veggies, they will hate green juice. Not so. Green juice, when properly prepared delivers delightful intermingling flavors: salty and sweet. Spicy and sour. Pungent and mild. Tart and warm. Each ingredient produces a unique flavor property - and with a little creative license, you can easily craft your perfect variation of "Green Juice". Here are my favorite recipes - and a few steps to creating your own...

See my Juicing Series for my series for Juicing for Health (and fun)!

My At-Home Juicing 101 is your complete guide from start to finish!

Vibrant Green Tonic:

Green Juice Ingredients. There is more than a handful of ingredients that you can add to your green juice recipe: beets, chard, arugula, spinach, lime, lemon, apple, pear, garlic, scallions, basil, cucumber, orange, kiwi, romaine, pineapple, mint and many many more. See towards the end of this post for my laundry list of Green Juice ingredients.

How Much Green Juice Do I Get? Leafy greens are a funny bunch, because unlike an orange or even an apple, it is tricky to predict how much juice will come from them. Here is one example to give you a feel for green juice amounts:

8 leaves of Rainbow Chard = 10 ounces green juice + foam.
Pulp = only about ⅓ cup:

Foamy Juice. Green Juice often foams up quite a lot. But not in the same debilitating way that pineapple juice does. In a good way. The end result is juice that is frothy and foamy, like a soy latte. Fresh, fluffy and delicious.

Green Juices 101. There are a few different flavors of juices: sweet, spicy, grassy, zesty, mild, juicy (hydrating), tart, bitter and sour. I like to keep about this ratio of juice in my green juices:

3 parts grassy greens juice
4 parts sweet juice
2 parts zesty/sour/tart juice
1 part spicy juice

Example:
3 parts romaine/spinach/cucumber juice
4 parts apple or pear juice
2 parts kiwi or lemon juice
1 part ginger

NOTE: Green Juice ingredients do not have to be all green! This may seem silly to say, but it is often a green juice myth among newbies.

Kitty Break! My view as I photographed the green juice:

The recipe I made for this post is one of my favorites. Here it is and a few other easy Green Juice recipes to try:

Sweet Garden Greens
vegan, serves two

3-4 ounces green chard juice
*About 3 medium leaves
1 extra large bosc pear
1 orange, peeled
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled
1 lime, peeled

Directions:

1. Wash your ingredients well.

2. Peel the rind off your lime and orange - discard. Slice your fruit.

3. Juice your chad greens, orange, lime, pear and ginger.

4. Serve immediately.

My Sweet Garden Greens Juice:

Straight-Up Rainbow Chard Juice, 100% Greens:

I also love this Vibrant Ginger Green Tonic Green Juice recipe.

Or this Apple Spinach Lemon Greenmarket Green Juice recipe.

Another Green Juice recipe I enjoy...

handful of spinach
a few pinches of parsley
2 celery stalks or cucumber
1 large organic green apple
1 tablespoon ginger
1 lemon
dash of cayenne

Green Juice Ingredients. Here are a few of my faves and my flavor analysis of them:

Greens Ingredients:
Arugula - spicy, grassy
Basil - sweet, spicy
Bell Pepper - hydrating, sweet, zesty
Cabbage - mildly grassy
Celery - zesty, hydrating
Chard - grassy, sweet
Cilantro - sweet, fragrant
Collard greens - grassy
Cucumbers - hydrating, sweet/sour
Endive - bitter
Fennel - anise, zesty
Green apples - very sweet, tart
Green grapes - very sweet, tart
Green onion - zesty, spicy
Green pears - very sweet
Honeydew - sweet, hydrating
Jalapeno - spicy, zesty
Kale - grassy, dark
Kiwifruit - tart, sweet, zesty
romaine - hydrating, mild, grassy
Limes - sour, zesty
Mache - grassy, dark
Parsley - grassy, zesty
Spinach - grassy, dark, pungent
Watercress - spicy, grassy, hydrating
Wheatgrass - very grassy
Zucchini - hydrating, mildly bitter
Mint - vibrant, minty, cooling
assorted green herbs

Non Green Ingredients
Pears - very sweet
Apples - sweet/tart
Ginger - very spicy
Orange - zesty, sweet
Lemon - tart, zesty (remove seeds)
Pineapple - zesty, very sweet
Carrots - sweet, thick
Grapefruit - sweet/tart, mildly bitter
Blueberries - sweet, thick
Jicama - thin, mild, cooling
Radish - zesty
Beet - sweet, dark
Garlic - zesty, spicy
Tomato - sweet, zesty

Other Add-in's:
Black Pepper - spicy
Spirulina - seaweed/nutrients
Cayenne - spicy

More Recipes and Green Juice combos to try...

*pineapple/mint/cucumber/arugula
*beet/leafy greens/carrot/lemon/ginger
*carrot/apple/spinach/ginger
*lemon/cucumber/apple
*scallion/kiwi/apple/celery
*celery/honeydew/parsley/lime
*beet/grapefruit/orange/spinach
*pear/ginger/celery/mint
*basil/tomato/celery/black pepper/cayenne
*bell pepper/apple/lemon
*orange/chard/apple/ginger
and on and on and on....

Get Creative and discover what Green Juice blend you fall in love with.

The Result: You'll be feeling vibrant and energized after a tall glass of green juice.

Who is Green Juicing?
*Sarma M, owner of Pure Food and Wine in NYC often tweets that she drinks about a quart of Green Juice a day! Her fave is "Swan Greens" available at One Lucky Duck in NYC. No wonder she glows so much.
*Celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow in her GOOP Newsletter, often remark of their love of Green Juice.
*Tons of Green Juice suppliers pop up all over the country. There's Blueprint Cleanse and Organic Avenue in NYC.