I’m attempting to start a series on my blog, helping me do two things.

1) Document the creative and different foods I put together — forcing myself to rethink conventional food prep and cooking
2) Provide a tiny space on the internet that answers the annoying question that I get all the time, “What do you eat?” once I say I’m vegan

This week I answered a question I’ve been asking for a long time: what to do with the pulp of veggies and fruit when I juice them.

As many mornings as I can, I try and juice fresh fruits and vegetables for me, Nick, and Isaiah. Juicing veggies is an excellent way to stuff more good nutrition in your kid who loves fruits but won’t bother with anything green and leafy.

Isaiah will slurp down green peppers and kale, provided it’s in a rotary of apple, carrots, pears, and cucumber. I prepare everything and let him drop it in the juicer shoot and he squeeeaaaals in delight when the juice shoots out of the machine. Add a straw and voila! my kid has a decent amount of vitamins in his little bod.

I tend to make mine as green as possible. In addition to peppers and kale, I use beets, carrots, celery, and anything that I think has some hidden vitamin that I normally do not have in my diet. The juicer producers a ton of pulp. All of the water’s out so it’s as dry as a desert, perfect for…something.

Sauteeing it just doesn’t do it because the fruit and veggies just don’t jive that great under heat.

BUT! two options emerged this week. First, I added some canned sea salt tomatoes, tossed the pulp with olive oil and pepper and it made a handsome salsa. Hearty whole grain tortilla chips. Mhm mhm mhm. That pulp was gone in an afternoon.

For another fresh round of juice pulp, I added some toasted almonds and used it as a lettuce wrap filler. Boston (Bibb) lettuce laid on a plate, add a few slices of avocado, cover with newly seasoned pulp which explodes with pear, apple, carrots, kale, cucumber, and beets – tasty little suckers, I tell ya.

It’s another way to treat your fruits and veggies — juice ’em in the morning and give your digestive system a break from working so hard by giving it fresh and raw juice. And then use that pulp to fill your tummy up later!