The other I had a very exciting courier drop-off – my new Breville Crush slow juicer. Inspired in part (like many many others) by Joe Cross’ Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead doco, I’m interested in making juicing a regular thing, and in trying out the odd juice fast. I’ve been doing intermittent fasting (a 24-hour complete fast once a week) for the past two months, but after watching Cross’ doco, a longer juice fast looks like a good next step. Losing a few kilos would be a nice extra, but mainly I’m interested in fasting for the long-term health benefits, including the idea that you can help fight disease – including cancer – by fasting. I’ve never been a dieter, and I’d never be happy cutting whole food groups out of my diet long term (hello, I love food – all food – way to much to do that). So short, regular fasts or juice fasts seem like a neat and tidy little option for improving health.
I bought a centrifugal juicer a few years ago. It’s sat, unopened, in its box. I could’ve brought that out and got started but, because I tend to get slightly obsessed with doing things the very best way, a slow juicer seemed the way to go in order to get maximum yield of nutrients. The other bonus is, with a 240 watt motor, using the Breville Crush isn’t an activity that needs earplugs as an accompaniment.
So today I made my first couple of batches of juice. I didn’t follow recipes, just used what I had to hand and went by instinct. First up: beetroot, carrot, ginger, apple, peach, mint. Delicious. Next: spinach (my god do you get through a lot of it this way….), banana, apple. That’s lunch tomorrow sorted.
I was really impressed with the Crush. I’d expected the process to be much slower and messier, this was a pleasant surprise. The juice flowed smoothly, the leftover pulp was dry, indicating the juicer was indeed juicing. The parts aren’t dishwasher safe but so what? It only takes a few minutes to clean up, hardly a big deal.
Oh, and the fasting bit? Soon – this week, perhaps. I just couldn’t resist the mass of Thai basil in the garden needing to be used, you see. I just had to whip up a quick stir fry tonight…
