This orange and basil juice combination is super delicious and nutritious. You can make orange juice in many ways but how do you juice basil? Here is how to make orange juice with basil easily and quickly.
Homemade orange juice with basil
This is an extraordinary orange juice with a lot more flavour than you would expect and is easily made at home. What’s more is that by simply using just two healthy ingredients you can deliver 3 unique tastes that will serve you for either a nutritious breakfast juice, a revitalising evening thirst quencher or something in between.
How to make orange juice at home
With our best ever orange juice recipe to make in your own at home you just need a centrifugal or cold pressed juicer. We add juiced basil leaves for a healthy antioxidant kick and by either leaving the skins on or peeling the oranges you can optimise your intake of healthy essential oils. Bursting with vitamins and vibrancy this is immune-system boosting at its best.
Why should you juice
There are certainly questions around why you should juice more. It has been suggested but not fully backed up with scientific research that by juicing you can help deliver the nutrients straight into your system to be absorbed more easily. The juice of fruit and vegetables contain the most phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals and many think that having these nutrients having a more direct route into the body could potentially lower the risk of cancer, help you detoxify and boost your immune system. Consuming the whole fruit or vegetable is certainly recommended but of course juicing is another way to add fruits and vegetables to your diets and especially helps children who may not normally like to eat fruit.
Another reason to juice is to create amazing flavours easily consumed that is simply not possible by blending or eating the whole food. With this recipe you can introduce the wonderful bitterness of the skins provided by the essential oils in the peel. This flavour adds another dimension as you would not normally eat an orange per se in its entirety. The same can be done with other citrus fruits too and with the addition of some re-invigorating herbs you can really go to town on the flavour combinations. It is the bitterness you can achieve in this recipe that can pit a simple juice up against the likes of the most famous aperitifs in the world. A mocktail version of a Campari or Vermouth for example is very much welcomed here in our kitchen.
Alkaline juicing with oranges
Oranges and citrus fruits are a good ingredient to form part of an alkaline diet. So what is alkaline and why would this help your health. Even though citrus fruits are high in citric acid they are part of a food group that will alkalise your body. This is because when you metabolise /convert your food into energy there is a chemical reaction that leaves behind metabolic waste and this waste is either acidic, alkaline or neutral. When the residue or ash is left behind whatever its Ph level is will affect your body’s acidity. The thought is that the more acidic you are the more susceptible you are to illness and disease. The more alkaline you are the more protected you are to potentially lower the risk of cancers and other acute illnesses.
The importance of oranges for health
Oranges are an integral part of an everyday healthy lifestyle. Whether in an orange juice or peeled and eaten whole they are known to be high in Vitamin C and have numerous health benefits. There are also a few types to choose from that come in sweet (C.sinensis) or bitter (C.aurantium) varieties.
The common orange is a sweet variety and one we would recommend for juicing. Bitter varieties that include the Seville orange which are more commonly used for making marmalade or the Bergamot orange where the peel is used to flavour Earl Grey tea and for its use in perfumes. Other sweet oranges to use are blood oranges or mandarins to which varieties include satsumas, clementines and tangerines.
Oranges contain high amounts of Vitamin C which is a powerful antioxidant that is needed for at least 300 metabolic reactions including the production of collagen which is a major structural protein in the body. Collagen is essential for the growth and repair of healthy skin, bones, teeth and reproduction. Vitamin C not only regenerates other antioxidants such as Vitamin E and has numerous other benefits such as protecting cholesterol against oxidation as it is only oxidised cholesterol that is associated with the hardening and furring up of arteries. Studies have also suggested that people with the highest intakes of Vitamin C are less likely to develop certain cancers.
What happens if you don’t have Vitamin C
A lack of Vitamin C could result in the higher susceptibility to colds and coughs, poor healing, prevalence to bruising, hair loss, dry lips, inflamed, bleeding gums and lethargy. A good reason to consume oranges!
The goodness is in the skin!
What’s more, with this recipe we use the peel too. The skin of an orange is said to have at least 3 times the amount of vitamin C than the inner part. Orange peels are exceptionally high in polyphenols Hesperidin and PMFs which are currently undergoing studies for their anti-cancer effects. 90% of the essential oils in the peel is Limonene that is a powerful anti-inflammatory that is also being studied for its anticancer potency.
Types of basil to use and their health benefits
Basil comes in a few varieties and can give you different fragrant flavours and aromas to choose from. It is the essential oils contained within this herb that gives off these wonderful perfumes. Try using Italian basil for a traditional woody, herby and grassy flavour or lemon basil for a sweet citrus twist or Thai basil for a strong aniseed kick.
There are various essential oils found in herbs and plants as well and not only do they give off a sweet scent but they have numerous medicinal benefits too.
Basil also contains the essential oils linalool and eugenol which have powerful anti-inflammatory properties which could have the potential to lower the risk of heart disease and inflammatory bowel conditions. Inflammatories can also soothe headaches and fevers too.
High in antioxidants
Basil is also high in the flavonoid antioxidants orientin and viceninare which play an important role in strengthening the immune system and reducing oxidative stress at a cellular level in the body.
How to create different tastes for different occasions
It’s amazing how easy it is to create very different tastes using just two ingredients. Apart from having the decision to use different types of orange and basil the main aspect of being able to create these unique juices comes from the inclusion or exclusion of the peel. By having this wonderful nutritious and bitter flavour to play with you can either create a sweet and refreshing juice ideal for breakfast or after a workout by peeling the oranges and omitting the skin altogether or leave all the skins on before juicing and you’ll end up with a complex bitterness than almost zings with health. This drink can be enjoyed on its own like a cocktail. For a balanced flavour in between the two then simply only peel half the skins.
How to extract the most basil flavour
When using a centrifugal juicer the fibre is discarded and the liquid pours through the sieve and into the jug. To get the most out of the basil the technique to use is to simply stud the orange with the basil. Cut the orange through the middle but not through the stalk. This will create a hole that is easy to stuff the leaves into. This way the basil’s oils get pushed into the liquid.
This is an extraordinary orange juice with a lot more flavour than you would expect and is easily made at home. What’s more is that by simply using just two healthy ingredients you can deliver 3 unique tastes that will serve you for either a nutritious breakfast juice, a revitalising evening thirst quencher or something in between.
With our best ever orange juice recipe to make in your own at home you just need a centrifugal or cold pressed juicer. We add juiced basil leaves for a healthy antioxidant kick and by either leaving the skins on or peeling the oranges you can optimise your intake of healthy essential oils. Bursting with vitamins and vibrancy this is immune-system boosting at its best.
Experiment when juicing with oranges
Basil and orange works extremely well and really gives a unique great taste. Other herbs you could try which would work equally as well would be a fresh mint leaf to add even more sweetness or rosemary which gives a wonderful aromatic pine flavour to your juice. Whichever herb you use just make sure it is fresh!
Have you made this orange juice with basil recipe?
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More anti-cancer juice recipes
Check out our juice and smoothies category
Ingredients
- 5 large sweet oranges (peeled for a sweet flavour, or skins left on for a bitter finish)
- 10g of fresh basil
Instructions
Either peel or leave the skins on your oranges for your desired taste, cut them in half through the middle segments, not the stalk.
Stud the basil into the middle of each half of your orange.
Juice the orange halves one by one using a centrifugal juicer or cold pressed juicer, the potency of Vitamin C decreases with time so enjoy straight away.
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