Healthy Green Juice - Dr Oz Green Drink Modified

Green juice is super healthy, fairly inexpensive, easy to make, and it tastes delicious. Well, at least my recipe does. However, if you’re not accustomed to drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juices, it might be somewhat of an acquired taste.

After watching a health documentary called “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” I was inspired to take vegetable juicing a little more seriously. If you haven’t seen that movie, check it out. The guy goes on a 60-day green juice fast and loses something like 97 pounds the first month. It’s pretty amazing. I was so inspired after watching it, that I went out and bought a new juicer the very next day, so that I could make some green juice.

I started with the Dr Oz Green Drink recipe, which I believe he originally got from Kris Carr, author of Crazy Sexy Cancer (one of my all-time favorite documentaries). It’s a must see for anyone who’s interested in healthy juicing, diet and nutrition.

The instructions for the Dr Oz green juice recipe, are to put all of the ingredients into a blender. Well, that makes a very thick, almost chunky drink, which I really did not like. In my opinion, it was WAY too thick. I wanted green juice, NOT a thick green smoothie.

So, I made a few modifications to the recipe, so it’s more like juice (less thick) and I think it tastes much better. For this recipe, I use both a blender and a juicer.

First, I prepare all ingredients (wash, cut, peel if necessary). Then I juice  all of the ingredients (except the greens) with the power juicer. This will make several glasses-fulls which I pour into a pitcher.

Then I put the kale, spinach and parsley into the blender, and add the pitcher of juice, blend until all the greens are liquefied into the juice.

The end result: A super-healthy green juice drink that tastes great! I usually pour this juice into a container and chill for about an hour, but you could pour over ice and drink it immediately. It will be very frothy at first, but if you chill it in the fridge for a while, a lot of those air bubbles will go away.

The blender I use, by the way, is a Montel Williams Health Master, which I highly recommend. The Healthmaster is very powerful and easily liquefies just about any fruit or vegetable.

My juice extractor is a Jack LaLanne's Ultimate Power Juicer, which I really like because it’s very quiet compared to my old one.

Here’s my complete list of ingredients: Kale, Organic Baby Spinach, Parsley, Apples, Ginger Root, Celery, Cucumber, Lemon juice, Lime juice, and sometimes I add fresh pineapple to make it a little sweeter.

The best part about my green juice recipe is that the ingredients don’t have to be exact. Sometimes I only use spinach or kale, but not both, depending on what I have on hand.

As I said before, the quantities don’t have to be exact, but here’s approximately how much of each ingredient I use:

2 handfulls (or 2 cups) Organic Baby Spinach
2 handfulls (or 2 cups) Kale
2 handfulls Parsley (not cilantro)
2 med or large Cucumbers
3-5 stalks of Celery (organic if possible)
3 or 4 Apples (I use Gala or Red Delicious, but any type will do)
1 piece of Ginger Root (small to medium in size) about an inch long
2 or 3 fresh Pineapple spears (optional)
Juice of 1 Lemon
Juice of 2 Limes (or 1 if you want it less tart)

Note: DO NOT put the lemon & lime in the juicer unless you peel them. The rinds are not part of this recipe. I juice the them separately (by hand) and then strain it to remove the seeds. However, instead of straining, you could just pour it into the juicer as you’re juicing the other ingredients.

I buy organic apples (whenever possible). I always peel the apples unless they’re organic. I also peel the cucumbers since they usually have a wax coating. I wash everything under a sprayer of cold water and run the greens through a salad spinner to remove the excess moisture after washing. The organic baby spinach is labeled as washed and ready to eat, but I wash it anyway (in a colander) under running water, or sprayer.

I prepare the apples last since they tend to turn brown and oxidize very quickly. To help prevent that from happening, I put the apple pieces directly into a large bowl with the lemon/lime juice and toss to coat them well.

It takes a while to prep all the ingredients for this green juice, but this recipe makes several large servings. So, you’ll have enough to share or refrigerate some for tomorrow. It should keep rather well for day or two in the fridge, but probably not much longer than that.

If you have a good blender and a juicer, try this healthy green juice recipe for a nutritional boost.

Happy juicing!