Green Juice
Cucumber and spinach pressed with lemon and ginger.
CC BY 2.0 · Cropped, white-balanced, graded and re-encoded to WebP by eXir.
A hand holding up a glass jar of deep green cucumber-spinach juice against a white wall
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
150 g cucumber
60 g baby spinach
10 g fresh ginger
30 ml fresh lemon juice
- 150 g cucumber
- 60 g baby spinach
- 10 g fresh ginger
- 30 ml fresh lemon juice
Glass
Vessel
90 ml of liquid plus 200 ml of cubed ice occupies about 290 ml, inside the 350 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
2 steps · 1m 45sFeed the 150 g cucumber, the 60 g baby spinach and the 10 g fresh ginger through a juicer, then stir in the 30 ml fresh lemon juice.
Pour over ice.
Cucumber and spinach are pressed together rather than blended, so the fibre that would otherwise thicken a blended smoothie is left behind in the pulp catcher and the result pours thin, like a juice, not spoons like one.
Common pitfallPressed juice separates and browns within an hour as its plant enzymes keep working once the cell walls are broken, so it is at its best drunk close to when it is pressed rather than bottled ahead and left to stand.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
About
A wellness-culture staple with roots in a 1930s raw-food movement, revived as a luxury cold-pressed product in the 2000s and questioned by nutritionists in the years since.
Fresh vegetable juicing as a health practice in the United States traces to Norman W. Walker, who built the first commercial juicer, the Norwalk, and promoted a diet built around raw juice and vegetables that he called "Living Food" 1. Juicing entered wider American popularity in the early 1970s, credited to three figures working roughly in parallel: Walker, Gayelord Hauser and Jay Kordich 2. The fitness personality Jack LaLanne extended the practice into mainstream exercise culture with his own Power Juicer, launched in the same period 1.
The specific green, vegetable-forward juice now sold under that name is a later, early-2000s development, tied to a wave of cold-pressed juice bars such as Organic Avenue, Liquiteria and Juice Press that opened in New York starting in the early 2000s 1. These shops sold green juice as part of multi-day cleanses at a significant premium, and celebrity endorsement helped drive the trend into mainstream wellness culture over the following decade 1. A 2011 documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, is credited with driving a further surge in juicer sales and home juicing more broadly 2.
By the early 2010s, nutritionists and journalists had begun directly challenging the detoxification claims made for juice cleanses, and the scientific evidence for them did not hold up; one of the trend's flagship juice bars, Organic Avenue, filed for bankruptcy in 2015 before later reopening 1. The plain, unsweetened pressed juice itself, distinct from the cleanse marketing built around it, has remained a standard item on juice bar menus regardless.
- 1License to Kale: A Concentrated History of Juice Crazesvice.com
- 2Juicingen.wikipedia.org