Customer Reviews

Ultimate Juicing: Delicious Recipes for Over 125 of the Best Fruit & Vegetable Juice Combinations

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Allow me to be blunt--I don't buy into the whole health-craze notion that juicing is the silver bullet for ultimate physical health and spiritual awakening. I'm just a no-frills, moderately healthy woman who wants to enjoy the luxury of fresh-squeezed juices in her own kitchen without having to pay a gourmet price for them. To that end, I splurged on a good but affordable juice extractor and bought this book to learn the basics of making homemade juices. As with everything I purchase online, I checked out other customers' reviews of various juicing information and cookbooks beforehand, and Rodnitzky's book appeared to contain what I needed without too much fru-fru, "juicing will change your life" craziness.

What I found when the book arrived was that not only does Ultimate Juicing provide all the basic information one needs to make healthy and delicious juices at home, it also avoids the pitfalls of hard-sell promotional content("these recipes will work best with such-and-such brand juice extractor") and extravagant expectations for juicing's health and/or spiritual benefits. In 8 concise, sensible chapters, Rodnitzky describes the nutritional value of fresh-made juices; proper selection, preparation, and storage of produce; juicer selection (without the hard-sell: the juicers are described in terms of operation with brand names mentioned only as examples); and recipes for basic, health-boosting, exotic, and alcoholic juice drinks.

The core information and excellent variety of recipes easily offset the silliness of the recipe titles, and the comprehensive index makes the book a handy reference for everyday use in the kitchen. I would recommend this book for veteran and novice juicers alike, regardless of their physical fitness or spiritual level.

Like a lot of people, I love juicing, but I've been through too many juice books that place juicing alongside acupuncture, healing crystals and tarot cards as if drinking juice was going to bring me to a higher spirtual level. Look, if that works for you, more power to you, but what I want out of a juice book is two things - great recipes and some fun. This book has both. The recipes are outstanding - you'll find some drinks in here that at first glance seem a little strange, maybe even disturbing, but give them a try and you'll never go back to just fresh squeezed orange juice. The other thing a like about this book is the humor - it seems like every recipe title is a play on words or pun, I think this book could sell equally well in the humor section! I can't decide what is more refreshing - the recipes or the book!

My wife and I bought this book because we wanted Juice recipes. We already own a juicer and we do not need to be sold on the benefits of Juicing. Nevertheless, this author, like many authors of these types of books, felt it necessary to devote a considerable portion of the book talking about why you should be juicing and the health benefits of juicing fresh fruits and vegetables. Needless to say, we ignore those portions of the book (along with the section on how to choose a juicer or how to garnish a drink). But, despite all the fluff, there are good juice recipes in this book and an excellent table which gives the nutritional statistics for individual fruits and vegetables. In addition to this the book also gives a nutritional summary for each drink.

Not only do the juice recipes in this book taste absolutely fabulous... but the author has also come up with some highly entertaining titles and blurbs to keep you entertained as you prepare the delicious beverages. This book has been a godsend for me -- my kids will actually "eat" their fruits and vegetables now because they taste so good!!!

I have a feeling the book could have been 500 pages long if they'd come up with more bad puns. A lot of the combinations are obvious, although the book is attractive and the cover photo is beautiful and it's helpful for beginners. The recipes calling for a couple tablespoons of superfine (baker's) sugar are bizarre -- I definitely didn't buy a juicer to consume refined sugar!

Overall I am not impressed. It's ok. That's about the best thing I can say about it.

I tried juicing without recipes and came up with good basic juices that I drank on a regular basis. Then I got this book and I enjoyed branching out into other types of drinks. Good to have one of these types of books but no need for more than that.

Depending upon what you're looking for, this book will either disappoint or thrill you. In my opinion, it's one step above your normal juicing books, not in the sense that it's better than other books, just that it's not what you'd typically find in something similar.

The book includes your normal, basic juicing recipes, as well as a plethora of other cocktails. The author actually has a section of alcoholic juice combinations, as well as a section on how to make pretty garnishes for your drinks.

One thing I liked about this book is that for each juice, the author includes a little nutrition fact-type label listing all of the minerals that the juice provides.

There were some good recipes, but, most of the book, to me, was superfluous. I thought the book was really cutely done and I loved the cleverly named juices. And while the section on alcoholic cocktails and garnishes was a unique addition to a book on juicing, I had no use for it. Also, there were no pictures to accompany the garnish instructions to show the reader what the end result should look like. I believe it would've been extremely helpful to see what the garnishes looked like when done properly.

There was also a "power boost" section which incorporated several supplements (gingko, vit.C powder, etc.) into the juicing recipes. More than anything, I found this part more annoying than anything else. It was completely unnecessary to devote an entire portion of the book to "power boost" recipes. It would have just been enough to simply include a small note instructing the reader that if they wanted an extra kick they could merely include a dose of whichever "power booster" they desired.

One part of the book that I did appreciate was the section in the beginning which instructed the readers on how to, not only, pick out produce properly, but also how to juice it properly (like how to cut it up, if the produce needs to be peeled, etc.)

This book is definitely not your typical juicing book. While it didn't have what I was looking for, I appreciate the different spin the author put on what can be both a boring and daunting subject (for beginners). I think that her approach can open the door for many potential juicers where other, more traditional books, can close it.

"...when you eat a fresh carrot, many of the important nutrients become trapped in the fiber so that you only assimilate approximately 1 percent of the vegetable's available beta-carotene. But when you juice a carrot and remove the fiber, almost 100 percent of the beta-carotene is absorbable." ~ pg. 2

Since you can get a good juicer for around forty dollars, almost everyone can now afford to increase their health with fresh fruit and vegetable juices.

"Ultimate Juicing" is truly one of the most creative books on juicing I've yet to see in my short time looking for juicing books. While I occasionally borrow books from the library to see how good they might be, this is one I bought without reading it first. I'd recommend you buy this book as soon as humanly possible because it will take your juicing to new heights.

The two juices I've tried so far have been spectacular. The recipe called "First Mango on the Moon" (which I'm drinking as I type) is an icy delight. It combines the flavor of mango and pineapple with lime. Then it is blended in a blender with ice and mineral water. This would be perfect to make for summer parties. If you don't want to use the sugar the recipe calls for you can use one packet of stevia instead. I also didn't use an entire lime - more like a quarter of a lime. I love this recipe because mangoes and pineapple are usually sitting out on the counter and they taste better cold.

The second recipe I tried was the Apple and Tangerine juice. Since I wanted more tangerine flavor I used double the tangerines and one less apple. The author says to feel free to experiment, which is easier if you know which fruits and vegetables go together well. You may also want to try:

Like Ginseng in the Rain
The Lime of Your Life
The Age of Asparagus
Peaches in Seattle
Cool Hand Cuke

Another reason I love "Ultimate Juicing" is because it begins with a brief introduction to all the fruits and vegetables you will be using in the recipes. Here you will find out things like how broccoli is a good source of calcium and cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C. The author didn't mention Braeburn apples but I'd highly recommend them. They juice especially well and are full of flavor unlike some of the other apple varieties I've tried.

The only issue I have with this book is the author's advice to put sugar into the fruit juices. Why ruin a good thing? When making the cranberry juice just add a packet of stevia. You won't be able to tell the difference between sugar and stevia, it is that good.

If you are looking for a juicer I can recommend: Black & Decker Juice Extractor. Other juicing books I've tried recently include: Juicing for Health and The Juice Lady's Juicing for High Level Wellness and Vibrant Good Looks. If I had to choose between the three I'd select Ultimate Juicing! I'm also about to try recipes from The Juicing Bible which looks incredible just after looking through it once.

~The Rebecca Review

I recently got back into juicing and wanted a book to serve as a refresher on good combinations and I wanted it NOW so this I bought this title for my Kindle. I honestly feel like I flushed 10 bucks down the toilet.

While the Kindle publishing date is Jan of 2011 the paperback this Kindle book is based on is from 2000 and does not seem to have been updated in any manner. I don't recall sugar being painted as the devil it is today back in 2000 so I will let the author off the hook for adding sugar to so many juice recipes but it doesn't change the fact that is listed as an ingredient in a good many recipes and a few even call for lemon and lime soda! What is the point of making and drinking healthy fresh juice and adding soda?

Part of the reason I bought this book is because there is mention of a chapter that includes healthful boosters that will enhance already healthy juices while still keeping them flavorful - again the 2000 publishing date hampers this section as the only "boosters" mentioned are Vitamin C, Bee Pollen, Ginko and Echinacea. Obviously in the last decade many more supplements have come to light in terms of boosting health but of course they aren't in this book.

No wonder there are more than a few reviews mentioning how this book tones down the "juicing will transform your life" meme - following the recipes in here most likely wouldn't.

Since I already have a Vitamix for my green smoothies I didn't worry about buying a masticating or twin gear juicer - I opted for a centrifugal Breville but the author of this book recommends the twin gear which can easily juice greens (not easy to do with a centrifugal) which makes it all the more baffling that so few of her recipes include any kind of greens (although there are ALOT that use wheatgrass). A really big part of juicing for many is it is a great (palatable) way to sneak more healthy greens into your diet - but there aren't really any recipes that do that. One recipe mentions kale, a few mention spinach and maybe two mention parsley.

125 recipes? I didn't count but that seems overly generous - I guess that includes the "recipes" for garnishes which is laughable. Do people really need a recipe in order to put blueberries, cranberries and blackberries on a skewer/toothpick?

Don't be impatient like me and order another juicing book which will most likely not be available in Kindle format as of the date of this writing.

I'm new to juicing; I bought a juicer first, because it tastes good and second, because it's probably somewhat good for me. I was hard pressed to find a juicing book that didn't preach about how juicing can save the world etc. And once you get past the corny names, this book did a pretty decent job of providing a novice with some exploration ideas if I start to get adventurous. I like that she didn't shy away from suggesting adding sugar to some drinks, it showed me that, like me, she was in it for taste first and health second.