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Supercleanse Green Juice

Your cut-out-and-keep guide to the fundamentals of cooking

Juicing is not to be confused with blending. This recipe is for a juice, where you extract all the liquid from a vegetable or fruit and leave behind the pulp. In Sprout & Co, we also do smoothies, which are blended vegetables and juices, and these make a more substantial drink. I personally drink two all-vegetable juices every day. They’re not replacements for meals, but they are great to have instead of a coffee when you hit a slump in the day. In the shops, we use a commercial juicer called the X1, but at home, I use the GreenValu cold-press juicer. It’s also called a masticating juicer. You get much better juice with a cold-press system than with a centrifugal system. A cold-press juicer applies pressure to your vegetables and fruit and literally pushes the juice out. You’re left with a very pure juice, while the pulp goes into a bowl. A centrifugal juicer operates with blades that spin around and extract the juice at high speed. With that kind of juicer, because the blades heat up at such a high speed, a lot of the live enzymes and good bacteria are killed off. This doesn’t happen with a cold-press system. Cold-pressed juice is better for you, but it also looks clearer and doesn’t have that scum on the top of it that you get from a centrifugal juicer. I also think juice tastes much better when it’s cold-pressed. This Supercleanse juice, which is the one I drink most often, is 100pc vegetables. The kale, spinach and parsley are all natural detoxifiers and are great for your skin, for energy and for general well-being. The ginger is very good for circulation and digestion, and the lemon juice is detoxifying, too. We basically think of it as a big plate of greens or a salad, turned into a quick-hit enjoyable juice. Juices like this are a great way for people who don’t like greens to get all their nutritive value. This particular juice is as healthy as they come, and you can vary the ginger and lemon juice as much as you want, according to how much zing you like. If you need to make it more palatable or sweet, you could throw an apple into the mix. Or if you really want to ramp up the healthiness, try adding wheatgrass or some spirulina. Serves 1.

You will need:

Handful of kale Handful of spinach Handful of parsley º of a whole cucumber 3 stalks of celery 50g (1¬oz) fresh ginger 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:

Juice the kale, the spinach, the parsley, the cucumber and the celery in an electric juicer. We favour a cold-press method, but a centrifugal juicer can be used. Add the fresh ginger last. You can leave the skin on, and blend it in small amounts until you have as much kick as you can take. Add the lemon juice to taste at the very end. Jack Kirwan is the founder of Sprout & Co, 63 Dawson St, D2; 5 Lower Mount St, D2; 82b Campshires, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, D2, or see sproutfood.com In conversation with Sarah Caden