Grapefruit Celery Juice
Grapefruit and celery sounds like an odd pairing on paper and it works far better than it should in the glass. The grapefruit is sharp and pink, the celery is green and savoury, and the two of them together make something cold, clean and easy to drink. The ginger is there to stop it tasting like a salad.
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 good value alternative
- 1 Budget blender a good value alternative
Ingredients
- 2 pink grapefruit about 400g, peeled and all the white pith removed
- 5 celery sticks about 200g, roughly chopped, leaves trimmed off
- 1 lemon peeled, white pith removed
- 15 g fresh ginger a thumb-sized piece, no need to peel
Instructions
Juicer method
- Peel the grapefruit properly. Get the skin and the white pith underneath it off, then pull the segments apart so they feed through the chute instead of sitting whole on top of the blades.
- Chop the celery into lengths that fit your juicer and peel the lemon. Leave the ginger as it is, because a lot of the heat sits right under the skin.
- Feed the ginger and lemon through first, then the celery, then the grapefruit. Grapefruit is the wettest thing here and it pushes the celery through rather than leaving it packed in the mesh.
- Stir it, pour it over ice and drink it straight away. It keeps for two days in a full airtight bottle in the fridge, though it separates as it sits, so give it a shake before you pour.
Blender method
- Peel and segment the grapefruit, peel the lemon, and chop the celery and ginger into rough chunks.
- Put the lot in the blender with 100ml of cold water and blend on high for a full minute, until there are no strings of celery left.
- Pour it through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve and squeeze the pulp properly, because that is where most of the juice still is. Work reasonably quickly, as grapefruit turns dull and flat the longer it sits about.
- Serve over ice, or bottle it and keep it cold for up to two days.
Notes
One thing to sort out before you make this a daily habit. Grapefruit changes the way the body breaks down a long list of prescription medicines, including statins, some blood pressure tablets and certain antidepressants. If you take anything regularly, ask a pharmacist whether grapefruit is safe for you. It is a genuine interaction, not a scare story, and it is the one bit of this recipe worth taking seriously.
The other thing is that it will not burn fat for you. Nothing in a glass does. What it gives you is a cold, low-calorie drink that tastes like something you would actually choose, which is more useful than it sounds if you are trying to cut back on squash and shop-bought smoothies. Celery brings about 80mg of natural sodium to a glass, so if you are watching your salt, count it in rather than pretending it is not there.
Keep the pulp if you have a use for it. It goes into a soup or a bit of soda bread better than it goes in the bin.
Nutrition
Serving: 1glassCalories: 90kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 1gFat: 0.5gSodium: 78mgPotassium: 550mgFiber: 1gSugar: 14gVitamin A: 800IUVitamin C: 70mg
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