Orange, carrot and galangal juice

Mid-winter, and we’re awash with citrus – oranges, lemons, grapefruit and mandarins.

Fortunately, the carrot crop is strong and healthy and, as is the case with carrots, does not need to be pulled and stored but can remain safely in-situ in the garden until needed. They’re a bit weird and stumpy in this new bed, but it’s a stumpy variety anyway (‘Nantes’) and growing in clay; I simply don’t look for beauty in a juicing carrot.

So carrot and orange juice is on the menu, with galangal for flavour in place of ginger (which we don’t grow here).

I dig the galangal rhizomes with a heavy mattock then peel and slice them into the juicer.

The oranges are flooding through the kitchen anyway, with the flesh taking secondary place to the collection of orange peel that will be processed and dipped in dark chocolate to make our favourite winter snack. So the cook’s done all the peeling and its a simple job to push oranges and slices of scrubbed carrots and galangal bulb through the juicer.

At the end of all that is a refreshing and nutritious drink. The spare galangal is pureed through a vegetable soup and adds a fine texture and flavour there too.