The 5-speed Breville....Thus Far

So far I am very satisfied with my 5-speed Breville centrifugal juicer. I just finished a giant glass of carrot-cantaloupe-apricot which was delicious (recipe below). Here are the things I like about this juicer:

• It has 5 speeds which you can adjust based on the hardness of the fruit and veg. I think it helps get the most juice out; Not every fruit and veg is in the enclosed speed suggestion guide so I'm working out which speeds are best for which foods
• Clean up has been pretty easy overall;the included brush is perfect for cleaning the basket
• The design is great--I especially love that the pitcher fits snugly under the spout. and that the pitcher has a lid which prevents spattering
• It's fast
• The chute is wide--you can fit 3-4 whole carrots and 1/2 an apple quite easily; this cuts down on prep time
• Most of the pulp ends up in the pulp catchment area, which also helps with clean up
• The pulp is fairly dry, so I feel like much of the juice is being extracted
• The chicken loves the pulp so nothing is wasted!

Some of the things I wish were different:

•  I wish greens were included in the speed selection guide (like spinach, parsley and the like)
• Clean up seems to require quite a bit of water. We hand wash all of our dishes and recycle the greywater into a bucket below the sink. It's painfully clear that this uses a lot of water to clean up. At least the water is full of food nutrients and it goes into the garden!

The pluses definitely outweigh  the deltas in this one. One thing I somehow hadn't realized was just how much produce goes into a juice. I made a two-glass batch of gazpacho yesterday that used: 4 tomatoes, 4 stalks of celery, 2 limes, 2 cucumbers, 1/2 an onion and a whole red pepper. If I had made gazpacho to eat, that wouldn't seem so shocking, but to drink it struck me as a lot of produce. I'm adjusting our CSA requests and co-op shopping accordingly and now the fridge has a lot more produce. I think juicing will significantly increase our intake of fruits and vegetables, which is definitely a good thing.

With all of the appliance purchases over the last 6 months, the counter is definitely getting crowded and all of them get used on a fairly regular basis (toaster oven, juicer, food processor, immersion blender and soy milk maker). I'm going to need a storage plan soon! If anyone has a favorite juice recipe, please add it/them to the comments.


Recipe: Beta Blast from The Juicing Bible

1 glass

3 carrots
1/4 cantaloupe-seeded and rind removed
2 apricots-pit removed

juice, whisk together and enjoy!