Pear, orange and fennel juice

I have been making freshly squeezed juices for over three years now and I just cannot get bored with it. The only homemade juice I remembered from my childhood was the apple and carrot one. Still one of my favourites (with an addition of ginger and lemon or lime), but somehow the world of juicing was a complete mystery to me until I bought a few books by Jason Vale, otherwise known as the Juice Master – a guy with a lot of great ideas for juice recipes, even if he can be considered annoying by some people (like my husband ;) for his overenthusiastic attitude to juicing and life ;) So in fact I started with buying one of his books, Turbo-charge Your Life in 14 Days. I never followed the 'turbocharge' program, but I liked the recipes a lot (although I think his best book for beginners is probably Keeping It Simple: Over 100 Delicious Juices and Smoothies). Then I got myself a juicer he strongly recommended - Philips HR1861. I have to say I could not be happier that I got convinced to get this particular one – it’s been working great for a few years now, it’s easy to use and what’s even more important, easy to clean. You can put whole fruit and veggies into its chute – no need to peel carrots, apples, ginger, etc. Of course citrus fruit should still have the peel removed.

The great thing about juicing is that after you have been following recipes for some time, you start to ‘get it’ and you can create endless variations using your favourite fruit and veggies. The one below, for example, is something I had never thought of before, but it was a good choice ;)

It's a very simple and fantastically creamy juice:

6 conference pears

4 oranges, peeled

Half a bulb of fennel (or less or more, depending how much you like its anise-like flavour) - green top and hard bottom part trimmed, outer layer removed

Juice all the ingredients, that's it ;)

The above ingredients make over 1L of juice. I normally make juice in the evening and store whatever we don't drink right away in a tightly closed aluminium water bottle (I have a couple of SIGG bottles). This way we can finish it the next morning or bring it to work.