I Won’t Waste the Juicer Pulp!

As I mentioned a few days ago, we bought a juicer last week. The idea of buying tons of fruits and vegetables to juice was exciting but also terrifying. Not because I’m scared of vegetables, but because of all the dry pulp that comes out of the juicer. I didn’t want to buy produce and waste half of it! So I searched the web and found a few suggestions. So far, I’ve tried two: crackers and bread.

Almost every site I looked at suggested making crackers. They all seemed to swear by them. They did seem like a great idea as they are very little ingredients (pulp, flaxseed meal, some liquid, seasoning) but the result is probably an acquired taste. They definitely aren’t crunchy crackers. More like chewy fibrous bites. I also didn’t flavor mine much as I wanted to test it once with a real recipe before improvising too much. This time, I used this recipe from Choosing Raw. They were definitely super easy to make, just not quite what I expected. But then again, it could be based on the pulp we had. Clearly, different vegetables will give different flavors to the mixture. I do plan to experiment with different recipes in the next couple of weeks. We’ll see if it gets any better. 🙂

Today, I had a much more successful experiment. I basically used this zucchini bread recipe and modified it to use the pulp and to make it slightly healthier.

Here are the modifications I made (using to original quantities):

• Juicer pulp, instead of shredded zucchini (my pulp was a mixture of orange, pineapple, carrot, broccoli, collards, apple)
• Unsweetened applesauce, instead of butter
• Maple syrup, instead of honey (personal preference)
• I used pumpkin seeds for the nuts

It was SOOO good. Honestly, I’ve already enjoyed two slices today. A buttered slice, when it was still nice and warm, and another one with a little bit of frozen yogurt. Yum!

The best thing about using the pulp is that it’s a great source of natural fiber. Why waste it? I’ll definitely be looking for more recipes but I am certainly excited to have found a good use for my juicing leftovers.