Drinking a fresh glass of orange juice in the morning is a refreshing and delicious start to your day. But don't be tricked into thinking that is all it has to offer, there are many benefits of drinking orange juice you might not be aware of.
Getting Started With Juicing On A Budget
While juicing can certainly become expensive if you focus solely on purchasing exotic and trendy fruits and veg, it doesn't have to be! If you put some extra thought into your purchases and follow our tips, you'll find that creating delicious juices at home can be rather affordable.
Homemade juice is the perfect alternative to unhealthy snacks, while still being just as delicious. Juice can also assist with weight loss and give you a great energy boost for a productive day, alongside various health and wellness benefits.
Farmer's Markets
Not only are farmer's markets the perfect place for sourcing the highest-quality and sustainable produce for your juices, but they also have the added benefit of directly supporting the farmers. Without the unnecessary transport and packaging costs (and environmental impact!) associated with purchasing from supermarkets, you can often find a variety of fruit and veg at very reasonable prices. And if you have a keen eye you might find some incredible bargains too! Farmer's markets represent a wonderful place to discover new fruits and vegetables at great prices. Perfect for creating mouth-watering juices.
Selecting The Correct Ingredients
Selecting certain ingredients will help save you money while producing a greater juice yield. Water-rich ingredients are ideal for this. Ingredients such as melons, apples, cucumbers, tomatoes and citrus fruits are perfect for creating the most juice for the least amount of money. Pairing these water-rich ingredients with produce like carrots and kale is a good idea since they contain far less juice, balancing the recipe and achieving the best value.
Similarly, as vegetables are typically cheaper than most fruits and contain less sugar, we advise sticking to the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule means you should aim to achieve 80% of your juice from vegetables and 20% from fruit, helping reduce sugar intake while reducing overall cost and still offering the great benefits of juicing.
Sometimes, you may find a supermarket offers a range of "wobbly" fruits or vegetables, which are slightly deformed or have an irregular shape that isn't typical of their standard produce. These are priced lower than the standard produce and are perfect for juicing! Since the produce is all going through a juicer, why should the appearance beforehand matter? It will all turn into the same delightfully colourful juice in the end.
Selecting ingredients with a longer shelf life is also a great idea since you don't need to worry as much about food spoilage and wastage. Ingredients that last for around 2-3 weeks and are a perfect foundation for juice are ginger, celery, lemons, carrots, zucchini and green apples. Stocking up on these ingredients means you won't have to rush to the supermarket every few days to get fresh produce.
Don't Forget Your Freezer!
And don't forget about your home's freezer! Freezers are the best tool for combatting food spoilage and waste, prolonging the shelf life of many produce and ingredients nearly indefinitely. This opens up a plethora of opportunities, if you find a great deal on fruit and vegetables you can purchase them in bulk and juice it all. Juice can be frozen, so bulk juicing and freezing what you won't need immediately is a phenomenal way to save time and money.
Don't Throw Away Pulp
Many people disregard the benefits of saving the pulp post-juicing, but there are a variety of purposes for leftover pulp. Compost loves the nutrients pulp has to offer the soil. There is also a huge range of recipes for creating nutrient-rich snacks from leftover pulp, ensuring nothing goes to waste! Read some Inspiring Ideas for Your Leftover Pulp.
Utilise Your Back Garden
Growing your own fruit and vegetables can be a lot of effort, but it is very rewarding and offers many potential savings! Growing key ingredients for juice is a great way to reduce costs and can include a variety of produce from apples, strawberries and blueberries to tomatoes, beetroots, carrots and cucumber, all of which can be grown in the UK.
Remember: Juicing Isn't A Meal Replacement
While it's easy to get engulfed by all the potential health benefits of juice, it's important to take a step back and remind yourself that juice is a valuable addition to your diet rather than a replacement for actual meals. Juice can assist with weight loss, but continued replacement of meals for juice will not lead to sustainable weight loss in the long run. Healthy diets contain fibre from whole foods, which juicing cannot offer as it removes the insoluble fibre from foods. You can still get this fibre from delicious snacks created with leftover pulp, which contains the fibre removed throughout juicing by reading the article above.
Summary
Home juicing is a fantastic way to incorporate various vitamins and nutrients into your diet with delicious and colourful juices. Home juicing doesn't have to break the bank, and hopefully, with some of our tips, you have learnt some new ways to help reduce the cost of your juicing. Juicers don't have to break the bank either, learn about some of the Best Budget Juicers for 2024!