Easy-to-operate appliances can help you prepare healthy food easier, writes Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan.
PEOPLE have different views on juicing and one of the strongest beliefs is that we should blend, not juice.
I am one of those who believes this but instead of the fibre argument — blending retains fibre, juicing collects the pulp in a separate container, which you then throw — I want to consume my fruits and vegetables the way nature intended.
And for that, my personal blender has been the most hardworking appliance in my kitchen for a year or so, when I started green juicing and my son started on his daily smoothies.
I bought my first personal blender online at under RM80 and used it until the blades became blunt.
My second blender is the Philips Mini Blender which is slightly bigger but much more powerful than my basic blender.
To get the most vitamins out of juicing, you need to use more vegetables than fruit. For me, it’s a combination of kale or baby spinach, celery, Japanese cucumber and a quarter of green apple.
Chlorophyll that gives leafy greens their colour is bitter, so you might need either a sweet fruit (pineapple is perfect, dragonfruit is good too although the latter doesn’t make the juice look palatable when added with too much greens) or coconut water.
This mini blender has two speeds and powerful blades so that juices are smooth without the grainy texture in your mouth. This is a big plus for me because a full-bodied juice fills up the stomach so it’s not just water and vitamins you’re taking. You are practically drinking everything you put into the blender without throwing anything out.
SMOOTHIE OPERATOR
One of the things I feed my son is smoothies to make sure he gets the nutrients from berries and natural yogurt which can be sour if eaten on their own. So I mix banana, milk, yogurt and berries for his smoothie every morning and he loves it.
The blades of this machine are powerful enough to handle frozen fruits and blend them finely. I have also tried crushing ice with it and it’s a breeze but ice often triggers a sore throat in me so I try to avoid it as much as I can.
The tumbler is portable and it makes this machine much better. Once I have blended the smoothie, I detach the blade, replace it with the tumbler lid and the tumbler goes into Murshid’s bag, to the babysitter.
MINCE, WHIP AND SLICE
I used to use a knife for everything but when you have a toddler constantly asking for attention, you’d want to minimise the time spent in the kitchen. And a food processor helps tremendously.
I use the Philips Food Processor to slice my vegetables and fruits before I blend them because while you can pop bulky items in a juicer, you need to cut fruit and vegetables into small pieces before blending them.
I could get it done in under a minute before blending the contents in my personal blender with water or coconut water added in to liquefy the mixture. On days when I make burgers, I blend beef patty in it instead of having to buy minced beef. I find that beef that I mince myself is fresher and make juicier patties.
Sometimes, when I want to have guacamole with nachos, I use the food processor to process avocado, tomatoes and onions and I can have my dip ready in an instant. I have not explored the breadth and depth of this machine — blame motherhood for my lack of time — but when I have the chance, I want to try and make bread dough and pesto for my pasta.
I love this machine. What I don’t like though is having to clean its parts and while it’s not that cumbersome — the machine is meant to help us cook faster — I feel that the cleaning process offsets the time saved in preparing food.
But since this is a multi-purpose machine, it would definitely help those cooking for a family because mincing and slicing can be done in a jiffy.
Both the Philips Mini Blender and Food Processor are available at https://shopee.com.my/philips.my.
MY GREEN JUICE RECIPE
A quarter of green apple
A stalk of celery
A quarter of Japanese cucumber
A handful of baby spinach or baby kale
A slice of ripe pineapple
Mint leaves
Slices of Bentong ginger
Coconut water
SMOOTHIE TIPS
• Choose frozen berries as they last longer and are cheaper than fresh ones.
• When you have fresh fruit that you can’t finish, freeze them to make smoothies instead of tossing them away.
• When you buy a comb of bananas and they are ripe, cut them into small pieces, freeze and use them as smoothie base when you are ready to make one. The temperature doesn’t allow oxidation, so bananas remain yellow.
• Use plain Greek yogurt if you prefer a thicker consistency.
• Adding ice will only make your smoothie watery once it has melted.
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