I never used to think of pears as juicing fruit. They’re soft, and soft fruit gives you less juice for your effort than apples or carrots, so for years I only added them to blends with firmer things. Then came the September when every pear in the house ripened on the same day, and I had a bag of Conference pears too sweet to waste but too soft to enjoy out of hand. Through the juicer they went with a knob of ginger to give the juice some backbone, and it’s been a regular ever since: pale gold, gently sweet, with a warm tingle at the back of the throat. It’s also the drink I reach for when a heavy meal has left my stomach feeling off.
Why these ingredients work
Ginger is the half of this recipe with the science behind it. It’s one of the few kitchen remedies with decent evidence for settling nausea, and the gingerols that give it its heat are the compounds doing most of the work in that research. Pear is the gentler partner: it’s one of the lowest-acid fruits around, which makes it kind to a sensitive stomach, and it carries a little sorbitol and soluble fibre, which is why some people find pears helpful when things are sluggish. A 200ml glass also brings roughly 300mg of potassium, more than most of us get from our regular drinks. The lemon is mostly there for flavour, to stop a very sweet juice from tasting flat, but half a lemon adds a few milligrams of vitamin C to the glass as well.
FAQ
Is pear juice high in sugar?
There’s around 29g of natural sugar in a 200ml glass, which is a fair amount, so I treat this as a treat rather than a thirst-quencher. Most of the pear’s fibre is left behind in the pulp, which is worth remembering if you’re comparing it with eating the fruit whole. If you want a longer, less sweet drink, cut it with sparkling water; the ginger flavour carries surprisingly well when it’s diluted.
Can I make it without a juicer?
Yes, and it’s nearly as quick. Chop and core the pears, peel the ginger, then blend with the juice of half a lemon and about 100ml of cold water for a minute. Strain through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve and you get a cloudier juice with a little more fibre left in it. If you don’t mind the texture, skip the straining and you’re halfway to a smoothie.
Which pears work best?
Any ripe, sweet eating pear. Conference is the one most UK shops sell and it juices beautifully; Comice and Williams are sweeter still. Ripe is the important word, because an under-ripe pear juices thin and tastes of almost nothing. Press the top of the pear near the stalk: if it yields gently, it’s ready. Steer clear of cooking pears, which are too hard and astringent to drink.
More digestion-friendly recipes: see the full Digestion collection.
Pear Ginger Juice
Equipment
- 1 Juicer masticating or centrifugal
- 1 High-speed blender for the blender method
- 1 Nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve to strain the blender version
- 2 Airtight glass bottles for storing
- 1 Budget cold press juicer a great value alternative
- 1 Budget blender a great value alternative
Ingredients
ripe pears
fresh ginger
lemon
cold water
Instructions
Juicer method
- Wash the pears and quarter them, cutting out the stalks and the seeds. Ripe pear cores are soft enough to juice, but the seeds add a faint bitter note, so it's worth the extra minute.
- Scrub the ginger. If the skin is young and thin you can leave it on; if it looks thick or wrinkled, peel it and chop it into a few pieces that will feed through the chute.
- Feed the pears through the juicer with the ginger, alternating between the two so the ginger doesn't arrive all at once. The juice comes out pale gold with a fine foam on top.
- Stir in the lemon juice and taste. Some pear varieties are sweeter than others, so add a squeeze more lemon if it needs lifting. Pour into glasses over ice, or into a bottle and chill for an hour.
Blender method
- Quarter and core the pears the same way, then chop them into chunks small enough to sit below the blender blades.
- Add the pear chunks, the peeled ginger cut into coins, the lemon juice and the cold water. Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until completely smooth.
- Pour through a nut milk bag or a fine-mesh sieve lined with muslin, squeezing the bag to get every last drop. You'll get a cloudier juice than the juicer version, with a little more fibre left in it.
- Chill and serve over ice. It separates as it sits, so give the bottle a shake before you pour.