Eat Your Veggies!

These days it feels like you can't turn around without seeing or hearing about "juicing." I love buying freshly-pressed juice from the food stands that pop up along Portland's boulevards. But I'm also not interested in "juicing" at home for a couple of reasons:

--juicing machines remove the pulp from juice, which effectively removes most of the fiber
--unless you save that pulp and turn it into another sort of snack, you are throwing away a LOT of food, and I hate wastefulness
--have you ever tried to clean a juicing machine? hell no.

So I've begun experimenting with making vegetable... puree (for lack of a better term) in my food processor. It's relatively quick and easy to prepare the puree and equally easy to clean the food processor afterwards. You retain all the fiber and vitamins contained in the vegetable roughage and nothing is wasted. I often use up odds and ends that are sitting in my refrigerator: droopy celery that tastes fine but has lost its crisp consistency, greens from beets/carrots/other veggies that might otherwise get tossed, or half-eaten fruit that my husband brought home in his lunchbox. I don't have a compost bin -- I live on the 25th floor of a high rise -- so this is a great way to put leftovers to good use.

I like to eat the puree by spoon out of a glass. It's remarkably filling -- much more so than simply a juice -- and always leaves me energized afterwards. Give it a try!


KALE-PEAR-GINGER PUREE
(single serving)

Cut up one Bartlett pear and 2" fresh ginger root and add to the food processor. Note that I don't bother to remove the skins; that is a matter of personal preference. The fruit and vegetable pieces do not need to be small, but you should cut them into a consistent size for ease of pureeing.

Add some liquid to the food processor or else you will end up with vegetable paste. For a single serving, I add around 1/4 cup of water plus freshly-squeezed lemon or lime juice.

Next add 4-5 pieces of kale. I really don't care for the way kale stems taste, so I use a knife to gently cut out the stem and throw it away.

I love the taste and smell of cilantro. Just grab a handful, wash it, and slice of the bottoms of the stems in one fell swoop, like so: 

Don't worry about removing the rest of the stems... they are edible, after all! Add the greens to the food processor and admire the lovely terrarium you've created. 

Hit the puree button! I let it run for 1-2 min, stop and scrape the bits down the sides of the bowl, and then puree again until done. When I stop to scrape the bowl, I also add in chia seeds (as seen below) or flax seeds. Nuts would also taste good.

Scrape the puree carefully out of the blender bowl and into a glass or bowl of your choice. I serve it room temperature, straight from the food processor, but you could also chill it prior to eating if that's your thing.

(that's Lake Michigan in the background!)


My basic puree recipe is:
-one fruit
-2-3 vegetables
-extra liquid (water/lemon/lime)
-fresh ginger
-chia or flax seeds

Beyond that, you can experiment as you wish! So far I have used apples, pears, celery, cilantro, parsley, spinach, kale, chard, and carrots. Once summer comes I plan to try out more fruits and vegetables and also experiment with herbs like mint and basil. What are you inspired to try?