Pulp Problems, Vegetable Problems
Genevieve Tyrrell
I’ve been wanting to eat more vegetables since I’m pregnant. I also figure it might help just in general Dysautonomia/ POTS health issues to get more nutrients.
The problem is I’m not on big on vegetables to begin with, but now that I’m pregnant I can’t stand the taste of so many of them. I had already planned before the bronchitis to use the new juicer I bought. So I decided to try it.
Okay-- The juice was amazing!!! and it included cucumbers, spinach, and carrots.
Juice contained: watermelon, carrots, spinach, guava, apple, cucumber, banana, blueberries, and mango.
But then I was left a ton of pulp. Like A LOT. A ridiculous amount. It seemed like such a waste.
So I mixed up the following and stuck it in the oven: organic egg, baking powder, brown sugar, half and half, flour, (salted) butter, dried lavender petals, dried cherries, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and pulp from watermelon, carrots, spinach, guava, apple, cucumber, banana, blueberries, and mango.
First Round Ingredients:
- 1 and ½ cups organic flour
- 1 stick of (salted) butter
- 1 egg
- ½ cup half and half
- ¾ tablespoon baking powder – (Would try ½ tablespoon baking powder next time – added to the salty battery taste.)
- ¼ cup brown sugar – (This probably needs to be raised to 1 cup of brown sugar. ¼ cup I could still taste too much flour taste. Plus the bits of spinach add bitterness.)
- ½ a teaspoon of vanilla extract
- sprinkle of lavender petals (didn’t seem necessary later)
- sprinkle of dried cherries (added a great vibrant hint of flavor!)
- one squeezed small slice of lemon
- Left over juicer pulp from watermelon, organic rainbow carrots, fresh spinach, guava, apple, cucumber, banana, blueberries, and mango
- I added pulp to consistency liking (ended up with probably about 1 and ½ cups of pulp)
I Wanted to make muffins but didn’t have a muffin pan so I put in a rectangle glass cake pan about two inches deep
At 375 degrees. It ended up taking 39 - 40 mins total.
Texture wise it was a moist dense cake but stable in consistency.
Lessons learned:
1) If I had to do over again I’d probably nix the spinach. It’s too bitter. I’ll probably never juice spinach again anyway, because it really didn’t do well in the juicer. It’s meant for a blender.
2) But keeping the batch I have (which has spinach), at the very least I’d add more brown sugar or add stevia. **Really, most cake and muffin recipes count on more, but since I’m trying to cut down on my sugar intake, I had significantly reduced it. Stevia might also be a good option.
3) I also have to wonder if that was too much baking powder – perhaps that added too much salty taste.
4) I might also nix the lavender. Really doesn’t seem needed.
5) I also might try it with cream cheese icing, but again, that’s adding sugar, which I’m trying to steer clear of.