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Love juices but not sure where to start? With these tips and the innovative Philips Avance Collection Juicer, you can whip up endless concoctions at home.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel
Main Photo 123RF.com
Main Photo 123RF.com

Love juices but not sure where to start? With these tips and the innovative Philips Avance Collection Juicer, you can whip up endless concoctions at home.

JUICING TIPS

1. Fresh fruits and vegetables work best for juicing as they contain more water content than stale ones. You can process hard fruits and veggies like pineapples, cucumbers and celery, as well as soft fruits and leafy greens like tomatoes, grapes and spinach in the juicer.

2. When making smoothies or thick juices, put fruits like bananas, papayas and avocados in the blender before adding them to other juices.

3. When juicing vegetables, balance out the earthy flavours of veggies by pairing them with sweet fruit juices. Try these combos:

• Two cooked beetroot, oranges and a slice of ginger.

• Three sticks of celery, four carrots and three apples.

• One cucumber, two pears and a handful of grapes.

4. Remove the pith of citrus fruits before juicing the fruits as they add a bitter taste to the juice. But when blitzing fruits like apples and grapes, there is no need to remove their cores or seeds as they do not affect the taste as much.

5. The texture of apple juice depends on the variety of apple you use. Generally, the juicier the apple, the thinner the juice. The best choices are Gala and Red Delicious, which are sweet and juicy. As apple juice browns very quickly; add some lemon juice to slow down the process.

FEATURES OF THE PHILIPS AVANCE COLLECTION JUICER

1. An extra-large feeding tube that fits whole apples and tomatoes – no pre-cutting needed!

2. Two speed settings: a lower speed for soft, juicy fruits and vegetables like watermelons, grapes and tomatoes, and a normal speed for harder ingredients like apples and carrots.

3. A pre-clean function, which rinses the lid and sieve so that you can make different pure juices in succession, without mixing up the flavours.

4. It is fitted with a polished sieve and smooth surfaces that make washing out the fruit and veggie residue effortless.

Philips Avance Collection Juicer HR1871/10, $259 (UP: $289), from major electrical stores
Philips Avance Collection Juicer HR1871/10, $259 (UP: $289), from major electrical stores