Top Vegetable Juice Ideas

How do you get your 5-a-day? It can be a challenge for even those with the best of intentions. A banana for breakfast? A little salad on your sandwich at lunch? A few vegetables with your dinner? Sounds easy enough, but all too often we can get waylaid due to time or money constraints and settle for fast food with very low nutritional value.

Most of us are guilty of it at some point, but one of the best ways to up your fruit and veg intake - particularly your vegetable intake as these are what tend to be skipped when we eat fast food - is to drink fresh juice.

1/2 pineapple
1/4 small white cabbage
1 inch fresh ginger root
A few leaves of fresh mint

This is a really tasty combination with loads of benefits. Pineapple and ginger aid digestion and cabbage has been found to be a really stomach settler, so if you suffer from any digestive issues, this would be a great juice for you. One of the other benefits of pineapple is that it is great for your skin.

2 green apples
1 whole beet
3 sticks celery
1/2 teaspoon spirulina

Too many nutrients in here to name, but to start off think beta-carotene, vitamins B1, B3, B5, B6, calcium, iron, potassium to name but a few. Great for detoxing the body, but has benefits over a whole range of areas: digestion, energy, skin. Make sure you mix the spirulina in thoroughly, or pour your juice into a sealed container and give it a good shake so that your juice doesn't go lumpy. Beet juice took a while to grow on me, but now I find its sweet, earthy flavor really delicious. Another bonus is that it will turn your juice a beautiful, vibrant shade of red.

1 red bell pepper
1 head broccoli
3 carrots
1 sweet potato

Carrots are a great way to get into drinking vegetable juices as they have a sweeter flavour than most other vegetables, which can be more palatable to juice newbees. They are also full of beta-carotene and other health giving properties. This juice will boost your immune system, so it's a great one to try if you're feeling a little run down. The fact you can juice a sweet potato was a surprise to me, but they taste great.

1 cucumber
2 green apples

Cucumbers are well known for their high water content and low calorific value. This is a great juice for dieters that is totally refreshing and will keep you hydrated. It's also a good one to try if you're going on a detox as cucumbers are very cleansing and purifying. Mixing in a few mint leaves gives this an interesting twist for a bit of variation.

6 large ripe tomatoes
2 sticks celery
a little salt and pepper
1 cm ginger

Your very own Virgin Mary, a great pick-me up in the morning, especially if it's The Morning After The Night Before. The ginger will give it a little kick and tomatoes and celery are a classic combination that will never go out of fashion because it tastes too good. This is an energy giving drink that will set you up for the day ahead.

These are my 5 all time favourite vegetables juices, but have a play about with your own juicer to see what you come up with. I always use a masticating juicer to make my juice as you get a much higher yield per individual piece of fruit or vegetable, which will save you money as you have to buy less at the market for each juice. For cheaper deals, check out the market towards the end of the day as you'll get cheaper deals. Remember, if you're sticking it through your single gear juicer anyway, it doesn't need to be perfect in shape or size and it doesn't matter if it's a bit bashed or overripe. In fact, the riper a fruit or vegetable is, the sweeter it will be.