Carrot Orange Energy Juice
Carrot Orange Energy Juice is as bright and cheerful in flavor as it is in color. Before (or after) a holiday stuffed with food, it is nice to have something fresh and light. The sweet earthy creaminess of the carrots gets kicked into high gear by the oranges, giving this fun juice an unexpected smoothness and complexity. Its quick to make and it will keep you going for several hours. Bottoms up!
Yield: 2 large servings
Ingredients:
- 5 carrots, unpeeled, ends and tips cut off
- 3 oranges, any variety you like, peeled
Steps:
- Wash the carrots carefully...remembering that any dirt left on the carrots is going to end up in your juice.
- Peel the oranges. Peeling is critical for citrus since the pith (white part under the skin) has a terrible bitter flavor that can easily ruin a juice.
- Cut the carrots and oranges into pieces that can fit into your juicer.
- Juice. Pour into a glass with a couple ice cubes, and enjoy!
Carrot Ribbon Salad with Carrot Top Pesto
Our friends Beth and Justin, both creative cooks and passionate gardeners, made our day when they dropped off some beautiful carrots, freshly dug from their garden. While hardcore carnivores may lay claim to nose-to-tail cooking, we think that this veggie based dish gives the concept a run for its money, as it uses all parts of the carrot plant: root-to-leaf cooking in its colorful prime. Carrot Ribbon Salad with Carrot Top Pesto is adapted from vegetable whiz Diane Morgan’s Roots cookbook. In this dish, the carrots are first mellowed with a quick hot water bath to soften their texture and bite. Carrot top pesto, with its subtle parsley-like flavor, is a lovely match, accented with dollops of creamy goat cheese. Find a source for fresh vibrant carrots with tops and make this beautiful dish.
Roasted Beet Chips
I always associate beets with the Borscht Soup that my Oma used to make in the fall and winter months. At the time, I don't recall being all that enamored with either the soup, or beets. But now I love them both. We have found that beets are not a vegetable that generates a mild response. Whenever we plan to serve them, we like to first test out the waters to see if our guests are beet-friend or -foe. Beets have a strong earthy flavor that needs some assistance. In their unvarnished form, they are a dusty and lumpy root vegetable, with little to commend by their exterior. But peel a beet and you will find a vibrant, sweet and minerally vegetable, happy to lend color and flavor to drab dishes. Beets and their greens are chock full of vitamins, among them A, B1, B2, B6 and C and are high in calcium, iron and magnesium. Beets respond well to many cooking applications and are delicious in everything from hummus to pickles to juice. I first made these roasted beet chips when I was hankering for some root chips (those incredibly overpriced bags of beet and sweet potato chips at the grocery). It occurred to me that I could make them on my own and instead of deep frying, I thought I’d give beet chips in the oven a go. While Paul was skeptical of my oven technique, it worked beautifully and he sneakily polished off the first batch before our guests arrived!
Carrot Coconut Soup
Carrot Coconut Soup is made in under 30 minutes and uses a genius recipe from James Peterson. We love Peterson's cookbooks so much that we originally named our rescue greyhound ‘James Peterson’ in his honor. To our chagrin, we quickly discovered two names and multiple syllables to be far too overwhelming for a greyhound with limited life skills. Now, he just answers to Leo. Carrot Coconut Soup builds flavor from a sauté of carrots in butter, with an unusual thickener of rice, finished with coconut milk and curry to round out this delicious soup . Easy pantry ingredients, foolproof technique, and lovely bold flavors!
Paul's Morning Beet Juice
When I have a little time in the morning I like to start off with my favorite fresh juice. It is thick and creamy, sweet, earthy and a little tart. Its a fresh and health way to start the day, but it also has enough substance to hold me over until lunch...or dinner if its a busy day at work. It takes about 5 minutes to make, including cleaning up the juicer.
Tart Apple Kiwi Juice
I'm a little nuts for sour flavors. Paul will sometimes remark, as I gobble up sour candies, that I have the taste buds of a 7-year-old. It's true. I crave all things mouth-puckeringly, tear-jerkingly sour! This apple kiwi fruit juice completely hits the spot for me, it is a great, green jolt of tang with strong tropical flavors of kiwi. I can make this apple kiwi juice in under 2 minutes, including cleaning up the juicer. The great secret of this juice: it's too sour for Paul, so I get to drink it all myself!
