Pumpkin Juice

 

It being the month of  ‘all things pumpkin’, I decided to do a full class day of pumpkin flavored favorites including pumpkin muffins, pumpkin coconut custard, steamed butternut squash with lemon pepper (most canned pumpkin you buy is butternut squash anyway), and of course, Pumpkin Juice!

 

Pumpkin Juice is super easy to make,and you can vary it to suit your tastes.

• I used apple juice in mine, but I want to try using some fresh carrot juice or maybe even the orange/carrot/ginger ‘zinger’ drink I can buy fresh at my farmer’s market.  You can also try using pineapple juice or even coconut milk here.
• This recipe calls for half and half frozen and liquid juice.  If you prefer something with a thicker “smoothie” texture, use all frozen juice.
• You can use canned pumpkin for this, but it is so much better when you make your own!  We steamed chunks of a medium-sized pie pumpkin with a few knobs of fresh ginger and then blended it all together when it was soft enough.  The gingery pumpkin puree really added a kick!  If I hadn’t already had the ginger mixed in with the pumpkin I might have added a healthy dose of powdered dried ginger in with my sweet spices.
• Experiment with ‘sweet spices’ like Pumpkin Pie Spice blends or create your own with your favorite proportions of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

Pumpkin Juice
4 oz pumpkin puree
4 oz apple juice, frozen into ice cube trays
4 oz. liquid apple juice
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. sweet spices

Blend thoroughly and serve in a tall glass!