Juicing is a shortcut to nutrients. Taking that shortcut and ‘packing light’ by throwing away the pulp, you miss out on up to half of Nutrient Avenue. When it comes to Fiber Freeway, you only get to enjoy about 5% of it. Instead of dumping perfectly usable juice pulp, you might want to consider its many uses for it.
Taking It to Ground Level
Compost
The good thing about pulp is that it’s already broken down, so it decomposes pretty quickly. If you sprinkle it over your compost pile, it’ll help enhance the quality of the soil by supplementing it with various nutrients. With time, you’ll have to keep turning it over. This is because the particles in the soil need air, moisture, and heat to break down better. Otherwise, it’s an excellent way to supplement your soil.
Fertilizer
If composting isn’t your style, you can simply use the pulp as fertilizer. Once again, it’s all about the nourishment of organisms in your soil. Fungi help with taking up nutrients and worms provide pathways for water and air. These friends of your garden will be thrilled to feed on some juice pulp fertilizer. So surround your plants with it to attract them.
Putting Your Pulp Where Your Plate Is
Baked Goods
From quiche to cake, the pulp can be the perfect addition to baked goods. It’ll infuse moisture and texture, not to mention character. Pulp from fruit bestows sweetness to your cookies and veggies bring another dimension of savory to crackers. The juicier the fruit or vegetable it comes from, the better your baking outcome.
Spread, Sauce, Paste, and Dip
What if you blended your pulp into something that can complement your dishes? Think about using it when making chutney, a spread, or dipping sauce. The idea is to fuse it with the other ingredients long enough to get the right consistency. Combining it with herbs, sources, or dairy often makes for a more full-bodied taste experience.
Fried Foods
Both fruit and veggie pulp can be involved when frying something up. For pancake, beignet, and churro people, the fruit pulp is there. For lovers of fritters and samoosas, the veggie pulp is at your service. As long as you’re frying something, chances are there’s room for pulp to be involved.
Soup and Broth
Bringing life to an otherwise boring broth is as easy as adding some juicing pulp. For the sake of taste, you’ll throw in some salt, spices, and herbs. Meat eaters may toss in the flesh of their choice as the green team takes the plant-based route. After boiling for a while, you’ll reduce the heat and let it simmer for an hour or two.
Cereal
There’s nothing like some fruit in the morning to get the bowel movements going. It’s the same with cereal, so imagine what happens when you bring the two together. When your pulp has shed enough moisture, you can scatter a handful of it into your oats or bran cereal. This will also give you a nice boost of energy to keep you going all day.
Meatballs and Vegan Meatballs
In a savory showdown such as meatball preparation, the veggie pulp can work wonders. It’s all about balancing out that meaty flavor with a wholesome, refreshing ingredient. This way, you save yourself the trouble of chopping up vegetables all over again and it means more veggies for you to use some other time; for another meal.
Vegans, you don’t have to feel left out with this one. There are meatless alternatives that’ll allow you to incorporate your veggie pulp. You could use beans, mushrooms, and legumes when making your vegan meatballs. The pulp will give your balls some edge, improving the taste and overall healthiness of the meal.
Onion and olive oil, grains like rolled oats. These are just some of the elements you could blend with your pulp for a more complete taste. You’ll take care to ensure the pulp doesn’t end up taking center stage. You want it to accentuate the other ingredients without the meal being all about it.
Snack Attack
Trail Mix
This has to be one of the first options that come to mind. After dehydrating your fruit pulp, you get nuts and seeds and jumble it all up. This gives you a quick and easy snack for when you’re on the go. It makes for a great replacement for junk food and kids can take it to school, too.
Fruit Leathers
Sometimes you just want a sweet snack, but that snack doesn’t have to be loaded with sugar. You control how much sugar goes into your fruit leathers, if at all. They’re chewy and therefore entertaining to snack on. They’re also easy to store and pack, what more do you want in a homemade snack?
Granola Bars
A holy grail of gut health and disease prevention, granola bars are another great destination choice for your pulp. The proportion of pulp to grain is going to be of concern to you. One part pulp, and three parts grain will serve as your golden ratio. Whether you decide to drizzle maple syrup or honey as the glue is totally up to you.
A Trip Down Liquid Lane
Creamy Smoothies
So maybe you want to alternate between pulp-packed smoothies and pulp-deficient ones. There’s no pressure at all. You’re allowed to pop in some pulp from one day’s smoothie into a different smoothie on another day. Anytime you feel like having something more filling to drink, you know you’ve got your pulp to pump it all up.
Tea
Your days of buying teas are behind you, or at least they could reduce. If flavored tea is your cup of tea, you’re going to love this idea. All you do is dry out your fruit pulp and mix it with herbs or sweet spices like cinnamon. It even works well for iced tea, so you might want to try that out as well in the summertime.
Look Good, Feel Good
Skincare
Natural skincare solutions are gaining quite a lot of attention lately, and for good reason. We’re talking about environmental friendliness, sustainability, safety, and nutritional richness. A quarter cup of coconut oil, a quarter cup of oil, and three teaspoons of honey make a great facial mask. Orange pulp is an excellent exfoliator while papaya pulp helps reduce the signs of aging.
From facial scrubs to soap, there are just so many ways to exploit pulp for skin care. From detoxifying your skin to protecting it from cell damage, fruit pulp has many benefits for your skin. The key is to select the fruit that has the kind of qualities you’d like to have passed onto your skin. Explore, yes, but don’t empty an entire orchard on your face when you know which fruits work best.
For Non-Human Members of the Family
Chicken Feed
If you happen to be breeding chickens, then pulp is another source of feed for them. Just do the chickens a favor and avoid giving them dairy products as it may lead to diarrhea. Chickens just love fruit and vegetables, and they’ll pretty much eat anything in those two categories. You’re happy if your chickens are happy, and what better way to make them happy than with a healthy snack?
Dog Treats
Pulp doesn’t just work well for chicken feed, other animals can enjoy it too. For those with dogs, you’ll find it useful when mixing it in with dog food. If you’re looking to make it extra special, bake your furry friend some pulp-flavored doggie biscuits. Mixing this snack up with your pup’s favorite ingredient will leave them wanting more.
FAQs
Can you Eat Leftover Pulp from Juicing?
So you finish making juice and you look at the pulp sitting there helplessly. A temptation arises, but is it okay for you to give into it? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with eating leftover pulp. It can do your body a lot of good and provide you with what you missed during the juicing process.
You’re free to combine your pulp with other ingredients if you feel like it. You can have it as it is or place it in the freezer for a chilled snack. However you choose to take it in, your body will thank you for it. You can even make a starter, appetizer, or palate cleanser out of it if you please.
Is Juice with Pulp Healthier?
Juicing leaves you with only a portion of the nutrients present in the whole fruit. Drinking the juice with the pulp is as good as eating the fruit itself. The only major difference is the quicker delivery of nutrients with the juicing. Juice with pulp contains more digestion-boosting flavonoids and cholesterol-lowering fiber.
Can you Freeze Pulp from Juicing?
Pulp is best served fresh, that’s when you really get to make the most of it. If that doesn’t make sense to you at some point for some reason, you can freeze it. While freezing is a viable option for preserving your pulp, you should know that nutrient loss occurs in the process. A jar or resealable bag will work fine to contain the pulp.
What is Fruit Pulp?
When you process your fruits and veggies in the juicer there is a by-product that’s left behind. This by-product, which is often treated as waste, is the pulp. It comes with both the stringy fiber from the fruit as well as some juice. Besides the domestic uses mentioned above, it also features in the manufacturing of fruit-based products.
Is Juicing Wasteful?
Juicing results in efficiency. You get nutrients in the quickest time and use the least energy. Still, there’s no denying how some juicers produce more waste than others. It then becomes your responsibility to pick out the most effective of the lot.