CRUSSH Juices, Smoothies Recipe Book Review

I have to admit I've been neglecting my juicer since purchasing a NutriBullet. However, after receiving a complimentary copy of the CRUSSH Juice Bar's beautiful new recipe book, my juicer has been dusted off and is back in action on an 'almost' daily basis.

Those who live in and around London are probably familiar with the name CRUSSH. This popular fresh juice outlet was set up 15 years ago and are now the UK's fastest growing chain of juice bars.

Accolades to their name include 'British Smoothie Championship Winners' and '2015 UK Juicing Champions'. CRUSSH are passionate about providing healthy and nutritious juices, all freshly juiced on the spot.
Their new recipe book provides a range of simple juices, as well as recipes for smoothies and boosters to pack in even more nutrients.

CRUSSH Juice Bar, London

Although there are many hundreds of thousands of recipes available online just a few clicks away, personally, I prefer having a real recipe book that I can pick up and flick through whenever I'm looking for inspiration.

Crussh Recipe Book

The CRUSSH Juices, Smoothies & Boosters recipe book is so beautifully presented and well thought out that you can't help but want to get juicing. The book itself has a wipeable cover with a fold out inner cover, back and front that you can use as a bookmark, so useful!

There are three chapters devoted to juice, smoothies and boosters. At the beginning of the book is loads of useful nutritional information about individual fruits and vegetables. For example, which nutrients are high and how these nutrients can help your health. There is also a section on superfood boosters such as chia seeds, cinnamon, goji berries, oats, spirulina and lots more.

Crussh Recipe Page

Then we get onto the recipes. On each page is a glorious photo of either the juice or the fruit or vegetable involved in the recipe. There's more nutrition information plus a comment balloon with extra bits of info such as ‘did you know that guavas have four times more antioxidants than apples?’ and ‘you can juice your watermelon seeds with the flesh if you like but you can also toast any extras in a dry pan to make a tasty salad sprinkle'.

The range of juices is really good, though I'd recommend stocking up on pineapples as these seem to feature in quite a few recipes. That's fine by me because I love pineapple and it makes juices nice and sweet.

This book has everything that a juicing novice or expert could want.

The only little niggles I have are:

1. There are no calorie counts for the juices and smoothies. Although each recipe is accompanied by a list of nutrients, there is no further nutritional breakdown. Some of the juices will be high in sugar.

2. And another little niggle I have is that many recipes involve using a juicer, blender and a citrus squeezer. This is because softer fruits like mangoes and bananas don't juice easily.

So for some recipes such as Kiwi Banana Smoothie, p.123, which includes pineapple, banana, oranges and kiwi fruits, you need to juice the pineapple, squeeze the oranges then blend the juices with the banana and kiwi fruit.

Crussh Kiwi banana smoothie ingredients

This does make for more washing up and time involved. However, wherever the instructions recommend squeezing, I put them into the juicer instead as I’ve always put oranges through the juicer. It might have been helpful to have a little note or symbol at the top indicating whether the recipe involves using just the juicer or a combination of both.

Crussh Kiwi banana smoothie blended

3. There is no mention of how many servings each recipe makes and some of the recipes involve quite a lot of fruit. I generally pour myself a glass of no more than 100ml of juice because pure juices rather than fruit and veg juices are generally high in sugar.

However, an advantage with blending your juice means you'll benefit from the skins which contain fibre and it's where most of the nutrients are found.

But really those are just small niggles. One hugely positive aspect of this book, it's totally rejuvenated my interest in juicing, something which my whole family are more than happy with.

Crussh Love Juice 

Some juices are very thick and creamy and more like a smoothie. For example, Love Juice (see photos above and below). I chose this recipe because it contains a combination of fruit I've never tried together: oranges, strawberries, banana and a peach. It was an interesting taste which everyone enjoyed, though I found it a little too sweet.

Crussh Love Juice Blended

If you haven't had a chance to visit a CRUSSH Juice Bar in London, their recipe book means you can experience some of the range of CRUSSH's refreshing and innovative fruit juice and smoothie range in your own home. It'll cost less too!

© Diets and Calories