Homemade Vegetable Juice
Summer is officially here and so is the wonderful fresh produce. If you follow me on Instagram (@thecountrypeony) you know I started a very humble garden with my children this summer.
However, my garden does not compare to my father's garden which I featured on this post and this one. My mother wanted to create her own "V8" juice or vegetable juice from all of the wonderful produce my dad's garden provides. So I recently documented my mother in her kitchen as she used produce from their garden to make homemade vegetable juice. If you don't have a garden yourself, look for local, fresh produce at a nearby farmer's market. Follow along below to make your own refreshing and healthy summer drink.
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To make your own vegetable juice, you will need:
Ingredients:
Tools:
Step 1: Pick and clean all vegetables. Once the vegetables are clean, remove any bad spots and place the leftovers in a compost pile, save for the farm animals like chickens (if you are like my parents), or place in the trash.
Step 2: Cook the beets, carrots, and tomatoes.
Beets
Trim off the tops of the beets and boil them with water in a large stainless steel pot until tender.
After the beets are tender, strain them with a colander and let them cool to room temperature.
Once the beets reach room temperature, use your hands to peel the skin off each beet. *It is much easier to remove the skin from the beet once it has been cooking for a while instead of removing the skin with a knife when the beet is raw.
Once all of the skin has been removed from the beet, cut the beet into 2 inch cubes.
Carrots
Scrub the carrots clean since dirt likes to hide in the carrot's skin. I like to keep the skins on the carrots, because they contain essential nutrients.
Cut the carrots into 1 inch slices.
Boil the cut carrots with water in a large stainless pot until almost tender.
Strain the carrots with a colander and set aside.
Tomatoes
Once you remove all of the bad spots from the tomatoes and they are clean, score the top of each tomato with an x.
Then drop a few tomatoes at a time into a boiling pot of water.
Leave the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Remove the tomatoes from the boiling water with a hand strainer.
Then let the tomatoes cool.
Repeat this process until all tomatoes have been placed in the boiling water.
Once the tomatoes are cool enough to touch, remove the skin from the tomatoes with your hands.
Then cut each tomato into 1 inch cubes.
Step 3: Dice the remaining produce (onions, green bell peppers, parsley, and celery) into small cubes.
Step 4: Add all of the vegetables (cooked and diced), lemon juice, canning salt, and water to a large stainless steel pot. Bring the ingredients to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer.
Use a spoon to continuously stir the mixture so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
Continue to simmer down the ingredients until they meld together and become mushy (about 30 minutes).
Step 5: Place the chinois on a stand inside of a large bowl. Once the ingredients are fully cooked and mixed together, pour the cooked sauce into the chinois. Use the pestle to get all of the juice through the chinois strainer and into the bowl.
Step 6: Once all of the juice has been extracted from the mixture, place the hot juice into the canning jars. Let the jars cool and seal. Then enjoy!
This drink is best served cold on a hot summer day.
I hope you enjoy your own very refreshing, nutrient-dense summer vegetable juice!
