ELDERFLOWER AND PEAR SPRING GREEN JUICE (R, V+, NF, GF, P, CHF, GRF)
It’s funny because I actually had not planned to make this juice. But then there was a sort of competition on Instagram for ‘the best smoothie or juice’ and the competitive streak in me went into overdrive. Fuelled with adrenaline, my brain knew pretty much straight away what it wanted my body to do:
1. Go to the farmer’s market
2. Buy the most beautiful seasonal ingredients you can find
3. Challenge yourself and work with a fruit/veg you’ve never used before
4. Forage to add interest
5. Kick ass and make a GREAT juice you can be proud of and tell your grandchildren about
So, step 1 was easy. On Saturday’s we have a beautiful farmer’s market only a short bus ride away. With my cute little basket in hand I went wondering around and – HA - found the most gorgeous seasonal ingredients including some pears and two other beauties which had never entered my kitchen before. The first ingredient was rhubarb. I know, it’s everywhere at the moment and everyone who is anyone in the food world raves about it, but I’ve never been a massive fan. Mainly because it requires a lot of sugar to really come into its own. But I was determined to make it work - raw – I had to challenge myself, right? I then found something called ‘sweet kale’. News to me this even existed. But two of my favourite words (sweet AND kale) put together could only be a good thing, so I went for it.
With points 1-3 sorted, I only had 2 more tasks left to tackle… foraging…. elderflowers, of course! Strictly speaking, I didn’t even really have to forage, as we have a wonderful elderflower tree in our back garden. I picked some flowers – not too many – and popped them into the juicer. The scent that filled the air was WONDERFUL and with that final, magical ingredient my kick-ass juice was done.
I’m really happy with it, despite not winning the competition. BUT my explanation for the judges’ oversight of this wonderful juice is that they never actually got to taste this beauty. Their loss ;)
ELDERFLOWER AND PEAR SPRING GREEN JUICE (V+) (GF) (NF) (R) (P) (ChF) (GrF)
Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes
Serves: 1
Ingredients:
1/3 - 1/2 stalk of fresh (organic) rhubarb
60g of organic sweet kale (from Wild Country Organics)
Some freshly picked elderflowers
3 firm, sweet pears (about 440g)
Instructions:
Wash all the ingredients, pop in a juicer and you’ve got the taste of spring on the tip of your tongue!
Tip 1: You can use any other green veg – spinach or kale rather than sweet kale. I’d stick with a similar amount though to allow your palette to enjoy the juice as much as your body.