ginger

bittermelon juice

5 Best Bitter Melon Juice recipes

Drinks, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bitter gourd vegetable has many varieties and even more recipes in the south-east Asian region, some of the tested dishes are gobsmacking good. However, I was not used to drinking bitter melon juice that only happened when we moved to live in Asia. For centuries it is known and praised for it medicinal and curative properties purposes. Used as a folk remedy to help with weight loss, blood disorders and bad hangovers; it helps lowering blood glucose levels in diabetics. To extract bitter gourd juice, a juicing machine is helpful but a blender will work as well.

wpid-20140522_14290101.jpg.jpeg

Bitter gourd, bitter melon, bitter squash in English, goes by many other language names

My friends in New Delhi informed me to drink some bitter gourd (Karela) juice on an empty stomach each morning. First, remove the seeds of two to three bitter gourds and use a juicer to extract the juice. Add some water and then drink it.  The Indian variety is much smaller and pointier, it differs from the Chinese which is longer and smoother as shown in the image above.

To drink on a regular basis you must have grown up with and accustomed to regularly consuming the bitter gourd/melons juice. Bitter Melon Juice honours its name by absolute bitterness, it is for the initiated to drink without qualms and a taste exploration for beginners to learn to appreciate its medicinal values and flavour.The juice of one medium size Chinese variety bitter melon will yield around 200-250ml and that is more than enough to start the day or adding a new dietary regimen to your lifestyle.

For the healthy nutritional benefits, cleansing, diabetic and inflammatory properties half the amount will be more than sufficient. Please consult your doctor or dietitian for diabetic advice.

wpid-20140522_16035901.jpg.jpeg

Bitter Melon Juice with Honey and Lemon

In south-east Asia, every region has its own dishes and recipes and most likely if you travel around you must have seen or already eaten this vegetable. Drinking the juice or in mixed drinks is something I have been experimenting with various fruits and vegetables to find the best Bitter melon juice recipes to enjoy. 

Bitter gourd is a rich source of vitamin C. Vitamin C protects your cells from free radicals, harmful agents involved in cancer development, cardiovascular disease and ageing. It also benefits your immune system, keeps your tissues strong by facilitating collagen production and helps you absorb iron from your diet. A cup of bitter gourd contains 78 milligrammes of vitamin C. This provides the entire daily recommended intake of vitamin C for women and 87 percent of the RDA for men.

How to buy and prepare

  • When you buy, do select bitter gourds that are unripe and firm as the ripened ones are extremely bitter. They should have a solid, light green colour, without any signs of yellow or orange colour on the skin or blemishes.
  • It is said to reduce the bitterness, you can soak the chopped pieces for about 30 minutes in a bowl of water with about 1/2 teaspoon of salt or juice from half/whole lemon. Next, to soaking you could parboil the slices or chunks, a method I prefer when cooking.
  • Rule of Thumb balancing food flavours: “bitter taste pairs with sweet, salty or sour flavours”.
Bitter Melon Juice recipes

Bitter Melon Juice recipes

 Five best Bitter Melon Juice recipes

Scroll down for recipe Bitter Melon Juice with ginger, honey and lemon juice or click on the links for other recipes.

  1. Bitter Melon Juice with Ginger, Honey and Lemon
  2. Bitter Melon Juice with Chaat Masala
  3. Bitter Melon Beetroot Juice
  4. Bitter Melon Avocado Smoothie
  5. Bitter Melon Pineapple, Guava Juice

Citrus boost with Grapefruit, Orange, Carrot and Ginger

Juices & Smoothie's, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Busy lives with changeable weather and cold fronts hanging around the corner we need to make sure we get all the vitamins to ward off the sneezes and other fly symptoms. Need to go out to buy groceries and re-stock our fruit basket, with the sun rays shining into the kitchen, what better invitation do you need to make the following Citrus supercharger.

Citrus boost with Grapefruit, Orange, Carrot and Ginger Fruit Juice

Citrus booster; Grapefruit, Oranges, Carrot & Ginger

Citrus booster; Grapefruit, Oranges, Carrot & Ginger

  • The Citrus boost mix consist of four ingredients, with the grapefruit and oranges it quadruples the amount of many minerals and vitamins, both juices provide a significant amount of three vitamins and flavonoids.  Citrus fruits are the sole source of a group of flavonoids called flavanones that functions as antioxidants.
  • Carrots are another excellent source of vitamins and beta-carotene ( antioxidant) gives carrots their bright orange color and makes this drink sure look even more vibrant.
  • Ginger has many benefits, such as anti-inflammatory qualities relieving swelling and pain, it also eases headaches, sore throats, helps fighting against cold and flu symptoms. Besides nutritional value it adds a nice zing to the Fruit Juice and deepens the flavor, for beginners start with smaller amount to balance the taste result to your palate or liking.

Cleaning of fruits is a must, but with our Philips Fruit Juicer HR 1861 there is no need for cutting up in smaller pieces it all goes down the wide-mouth feeder. We have this model for several years now, I purchased the juicer while living in Singapore years back and it has been in use and moving with us. There is a beautiful new model HR1871/OO 800 watt out, which is more compact and technical an upgrade, but I am still content with the first HR1861 model performing without a glitch. It has not let me down ever, still doing its job centrifuging all the best of fruits and vegetables into fresh juice.

If you are interested you can purchase it online at Amazon.co.uk or Blokker in The Netherlands, stores and online. I’ve added the links for your convenience to check for more information. It’s a great addition in aiding a healthier lifestyle approach as well as finishing last fruits with or without vegetables in nutritional drinks made at home.

Oranges & Grapefruit

Oranges & Grapefruit, peel and remove as much pith from the fruit.

Just remember to remove as much pith (white membrane covering citrus segments), especially of Grapefruits it taste of all citrus fruits very bitter, leaving even a little bit of sting on your tongue if you eat them right after only peeling the skin.

Philips HR1861 Fruit Juicer

Home & Kitchen appliance Philips HR1861 Fruit Juicer

If you only mix Oranges, Grapefruits, mandarin or lemons you can easily just squeeze them but mixing it with carrots and ginger, which have a much harder consistency and impossible to squeeze by hand. A fruit juicer is a household appliance if you give it a good spot on your kitchen counter, visible next to fruit basket you will downsize on spoilage and increase intake of freshly made juices with health benefits. Especially when its easy to handle and to clean, give it a go and experiment with various fruit combination and become bolder with adding vegetables to the mix.

Citrus Boost MIx

Freshly juiced, the jug yields 1.250 ml of Citrus Boost!

The family enjoyed this combination, tried, tested and approved 🙂 As another option next to good old Orange Juice as a change of flavor and vitamin charger. It sure does not hurt that it boost up your metabolism, wards off colds, helps with weight loss but above all “feeling good”!

 

Pineapple Ginger Mix – Fruit Juice recipe

Juices & Smoothie's, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our fruit basket is mostly filled with hand fruit bananas, apples, avocados, grapefruit, oranges and a fresh pineapple. Last week a few of them still a tad unripe so I paired the bananas, avocado and pineapple to speed up the ripening process. The more perishable fruits are kept in the fridge, such as a big punnet of strawberries, raspberries. Yesterday we had a blended strawberry, raspberry, banana and yogurt smoothie for brunch. For this morning Fruit Juice Boost I opted to use my Philips HR1861 Whole fruit juicer instead to extract higher yield keeping all fruits nutritional values without waste. I have written a separate post on Fruit Juicer pro’s & con’s, just click to read the full story.

Don’t know whether you need to have a reason to start squeezing and extracting juice, but full ripe fruits sure needs to have your immediate attention to harvest nature’s nutrients at its prime. So this morning Fruit Juice Mix included; whole pineapple, the last avocado, two apples, 3 stalks celery, and half a cucumber founds it way through the feeding tube, added a knob of fresh ginger lastly, to give a zing to the mix.

Pineapple Ginger Mix

When everything went through the feeding tube into the centrifugal compartment, the juice river promptly flowed into the jug container yielding 400-500 ml of juice including a bit of foam (the bulk remained behind the divider in the plastic container jug). Poured myself a large glass (250 ml) for breakfast and kept the rest in the refrigerator for later use. The recipe is in the box down below.

wpid-pineapple-ginger-fruit-juice.jpg.jpeg

Pineapple Ginger Mix – Fruit Juice

Later in the day I prepared a triple sandwich for lunch and had the remainder Pineapple Ginger Mix poured into 2 glasses (200ml) with ¼ – ½ teaspoon of Chia seeds. Give it a good stir and let it stand it will turn the juice in viscous (thickening) fruit drink.

Now I have some great Grapefruits and Oranges left in the bowl, see for another great Fruit Juice. Click here for another Vitamine C Supercharger recipe with Citrus Boost with Grapefruit, Orange, Carrot and Ginger.

Lemongrass ginger herbal tisane – My Cup 茶馆

Drinks, Words of tea leaves, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Lemongrass & Ginger tea, a thirst quencher with nutrition and health benefits.

Lemongrass & Ginger tea, a thirst quencher with nutrition and health benefits.

While I am typing this post it is raining again as it was yesterday, although I don’t mind the cold or wetness it’s the sun and warmth I crave the most. This early morning the day started with sun rays bursting through the window, but winter chills is still holding a firm grip and the wind doesn’t help much to change the mood throughout the rest of the day. While browsing through the fridge to see what I would come up with for dinner, I saw one last stalk of Lemon grass left. I decided instead of using to cook with it I would make a soul-warming tea with ginger to warm up my body and at the same time a soothing taste comforting me by filling up the house with fragrance and taste of the tropics.

Lemon grass has tremendous health benefits and is packed with so much goodness, it aids many chronic conditions due to its anti-microbial, anti-oxidant,
anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer properties. Lemon grass as a therapeutic tea helps improving digestive tract, detoxifies, lowers cholesterol and has a purifying effect just to highlight a few remedies.

Consumption of ginger has great health benefits too, I discovered not early enough that it is a great remedy in aiding to reduce pain with menstruation cramps and relieving tremendous migraine pains as well anti-inflammatory effects. In my younger years I relied to much on painkillers and have taken larger dosages to find release and feeling comfortable again. At that time I also didn’t appreciate the taste nor the belief that Ginger would help. Well that changed 360° after my first mug of infused ginger tea, since then I have been praising the benefits and healthy nutrition of ginger and advocating to others to chop, slice, dice, mince more of ginger to eat and drink of this mighty Ginger rhizome. See Ginger root, raw nutrition facts here.

If the pure ginger flavour is too strong at first, start with a light infusion to get used to the taste  even as a flavoured water it still works its magic for you. How to make ginger infusion tea from light to strong to each taste preferences will appear shortly, but after intake you will absolutely notice difference in your body it will lift up your mood and responsiveness. The combination of Green tea, Ginger & Cinnamon tea has been proven to reduce blood sugar level after a meal, read this article on synergistic effect of green tea and spices.

To add sweetening to ginger tea with mixed herbs or spices, you may add a teaspoon of sugar cane  sugar or coconut palm sugar (both have low GI index as a better health choice) or honey.

Here are some other variation of infused Ginger Tea’s to make at home instead of pre-made bags and packages:

  • Green tea with Ginger & Cinnamon tea
  • Cinnamon with Ginger & Date tea with honey (Korean-style)
  • Lemon-honey with Ginger
  • cinnamon, cardamom & ginger tea (Indian fused style)
  • Ginger tea with Cinnamon & Anise
  • Coconut & Ginger tea or juice

I’m literally out of my ingredients and need to shop, as soon as I can I will make preparation to upload photo’s of each with recipes and instructions for you to make herbal infusion tea’s at home too.