When we think about juices most of us will end up visualising orange or apple juice, not a lot of us will have carrot juice in mind. Of course carrot juice has a lot of benefits; it contains a large amount of beta-carotene, vitamin A and potassium, yet it is often forgoten.

When it comes to the taste of pure carrot juice you will love it or hate it. Depends an awful lot on what carrots are used; it can end up being a bit bitter and have a strong earthy taste, really not to everyone’s liking. This is the reason why I started to mix sweet tasting fruits with my carrots; this allows me to create kid friendly juice which will disappear from the glass in no time at all, with no fights or bartering.

We recently had the privilege to try out a Panasonic MJ-L500 slow juicer as part of their Come Round project. A slow juicer squeezes the fruit or vegetables instead of slicing, dicing and spinning them, as a result you end up with more juice containing more nutrients and much less separation. If you are planning on getting a new juicer any time soon, then this is the type of machine to get.

The amount as stated below will make around 1.5 litres of juice. It might seem to be a large portion but a family should (will) devour it within hours with no problems whatsoever. If you have no need for such a large amount, simply reduce the amount of the ingredients or make a large portion as stated and refrigerate the rest. Just remember the shelf life of fresh juice is around 48h if refrigerated in an airtight container; to be safe do not store it for longer.

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg organic carrots
• 3 organic apples
• 2 organic oranges
• 1 medium sized organic pineapple

Method:

Wash and chop carrots and apples (size will depend on how large the feed is on your juicer, my juicer has quite a small feed so I need to prepare small chunks). Do not peel them, there is no need.

Peel and segment both oranges.

De-skin the pineapple (do not remove the core, it will get juices as well) and chop it into smaller chunks.

Once ready feed all the ingredients into your juicer, interchanging them every couple of pieces so the juice is nicely mixed without the need for stirring.

Serve as it comes or over ice and enjoy!