No, this is not a juice that you just guzzle out of a glass…unless you really, really like the taste of ginger! This is more of a concentrate that you can add to other beverages like the GGMS from Trim Healthy Mama.
Now, I’ve been eating the THM way for over 18 months. I dearly love the GGMS and the Singing Canary. These are great ways to help get my daily allotment of water into my system. However, until this weekend, I have used only ground ginger in the GGMS. Oh, my! There is just nothing like the tangy taste of fresh ginger in the GGMS!! It is so worth the effort that it takes to grind and press the ginger! A little goes a long way, and it can be frozen!! Definitely worth it!!
I did some research on the internet to find out the best way to grind and squeeze the ginger to get the juice. There are probably as many suggested ways as there are Trim Healthy Mamas! And that’s a lot! Some suggest peeling it first. Nope…way to difficult to get into all the little nooks and crannies! At first I tried grating it. Nope, that is not going to happen in my kitchen either! Way too much time for even a small piece. Have you ever tried grating ginger? Ginger is very fibrous, and all those little hairy threads stick out like crazy and do not grate well.
Next, I tried slicing it. This is definitely better than grating. I sliced the entire piece thinly and then added it with water to my blender. This large piece shown here is about 2.5 ounces and makes 4 cups of ginger juice.
All you need is 1 large piece of fresh ginger and about 1-1/2 cups water to start with.
Cut the ginger into slices or small chunks and add it and the water to your blender. Grind it up for about 30 seconds to a minute. Strain the ginger, squeezing it against the side of the strainer. Put the ginger water into a quart jar. Return the ginger to the blender with another cup of water. Grind this (2nd time!) for about 30 seconds. Strain and squeeze again. Do this one more time (3rd time). Instead of squeezing the ginger pulp the third time, just let it drip through the sieve. *Do not throw the pulp away yet!
Pour all the ginger juice into a quart jar and fill the jar up with water. You now have some very yummy ginger juice to add to your GGMS! I froze half of mine in an ice cube tray so that I can just pull out what I need when I make it.
Now, about that pulp! Dump the pulp into a small sauce pot and add about 2 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Strain it again and squeeze out all the water. Now you can throw the pulp away. Add about 1/4 cup lemon juice and2-3 tbsp. honey or other sweetener to this ginger juice and stir to mix well. You now have ginger tea! We found even this to be a little strong, so we added ice and divided it among 3 of us! Delicious!