Gooseberry Juice

4 years ago we planted a couple of gooseberry plants. This year especially they have been a bonanza in terms of the number of berries we have got. While they are sour when not fully ripe they have a pleasant sweetness when fully rope. With the first round of picking I made jam with them. With the subsequent pickings they languished without being eaten so I took the executive decision to make juice out of them. What do you know the juice was much sought after. The speed with the juice disappeared made the pricks I got from the thorns while plucking the gooseberries very worthwhile.

Gooseberry plant

For Indian reader, the American/European gooseberries is a very different species compared to the Indian variety. The Indian gooseberry is a tree while the one growing in my backyard is a thorny bush.

If you click on the link for the jam you'd see a green colored jam, this is because they were made with unripe berries. The jelly I made this time was a beautiful red color. The big advantage of home made jellies, jams and juice is that it is easy to control the amount of sugar that goes into them.

Gooseberry Jam

You perhaps have all been reading about research about our declining well being, that rightfully puts the culprit as sugar and carbohydrates in our diets as opposed to fat which has been unfairly made the villain. We all know that as low fat food products proliferated so did the increase in added sugar content in all of these products. Some of the so called health products sure do have unhealthy amounts of sugar. Protein filled foods mostly meats also have fats in them but they fill you up quickly and prevent tacking on the unnecessary calories. The opposite of what happens when those fat calories are replaced by carbohydrates especially in the highly processed foods. "Eat Butter - Scientists labeled fat the enemy. Why there were wrong" a Time's magazine article last month is a good one to read.

Above all be it carbohydrates, fat, sugar or salt it is best to use common sense in what we are eating. Avoiding highly processed foods will be the single best way to reclaim our health and make strides against obesity.

I rarely buy juices because first of all I want the kids to eat fruits, secondly I do not want them to grow up thinking that store bought sugary juices are healthy. So making juice at home is a rare occasion and it makes the kids extremely happy.

Gooseberry Juice
Preparation Time:10 minutes
Serves : 4-6
Ingredients

1. 3-4 cups of ripe gooseberries
2. 1/2 cup of sugar

Method

1. In a blender add the gooseberries and blend them a cup of water. With a slotted spoon remove the bigger pulp pieces.
2. Leave most some of the pulp inside. Add the rest of the water and sugar. Mix it in. Refrigerate. Add a few cubes of ice and is ready to serve.
Note:When the juice is left to sit in the fridge for some time the pulp rices to the top leaving the clear juice below. But resit wanting to filter the pulp out. Mix it in and serve.

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