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Juices, as a source of vitamins and trace elements, are now increasingly included in the menu of people who are monitoring their health and well-being. At the same time, fruit drinks are in the first place, but to the vegetable juices the average consumer is a little wary.
True, there is an exception. On the second most popular place after tomato juice, there is a sweet pumpkin with a delicate velvety taste and a bright orange color. Thanks to the availability of pumpkin, this product is well known and loved by many generations of Russians. A pumpkin juice for the winter, with a shortage of fruit, long cook mistresses in cities and villages.
The Benefits of Pumpkin Juice in Winter Diet
The reason for the current popularity of the drink is its excellent taste and the abundance of useful substances, so necessary in the cold season, when the body is seriously suffering from a lack of "living" vitamins. And here, pumpkin juice has no equal, just a glass of healthy drink will quench the body's need for vitamin A and E, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Having pampered yourself with a delicious juice, you can strengthen the immunity and, thanks to the presence of pectins and dietary fiber, take care of the working capacity of the intestine.
Prepared for winter at home, pumpkin juice is one of the best sources of iron and vitamin K, ascorbic acid and beta-carotene.
In terms of the amount of nutrients and activity, the fresh, squeezed juice from the raw pulp is in the lead.
But such a product, preserving all the quality of the vegetable, has a specific flavor, a slightly fresh taste and is not liked by everyone. Yes, and save the squeezed from the raw fruit pumpkin juice for the winter will not work. Therefore, to enrich the taste of the drink in many recipes of pumpkin juice at home, additional ingredients, for example, oranges and lemons, sour varieties of berries, honey, carrots and even spices. And the juice for future use helps to sterilize the product.
How to cook pumpkin juice for winter at home?
Appetite always cause products that have an attractive appearance, taste and aroma. To pumpkin juice, as in the story about Harry Potter, caused a flurry of ecstasy at the big and small gourmet, it should turn out bright and sweet. To do this, start preparing for juice production with a choice of pumpkin.
According to many housewives, the best juice is obtained from fruits of large fruit or muscat squash.
Popular pumpkin type "batternat" almost entirely consists of a dense sweet pulp of a bright orange hue. An interesting drink with a light melon shade is obtained from the fruits of the variety "Amazon". Magnificent taste and color have beverages from pumpkin "Vitamin gray" and "Tsukat". And the full-bodied pumpkins will provide even the largest family with pumpkin juice for the winter.
Since during long-term storage the pumpkin, like other vegetables, loses a lot of moisture, and hence, its flesh becomes drier and friable, the juice is chosen healthy, recently torn off the whip fetus. This allows you to get the maximum amount of a healthy beverage containing carotene, ascorbic acid, minerals and acids.
You can get pumpkin juice for the winter by means of a juicer, many housewives who have at their disposal a juice cooker, also use this means of mechanization. In both cases, the process is greatly simplified, and the amount of beverage is increased.
But do not despair if you do not have such devices at hand. Not the worst product can be done at home using recipes of pumpkin juice and the methods used by moms and grandmothers.
First of all, you need:
- wash the fruit;
- carefully clean the cut pumpkin from the seeds;
- cut off the hard surface layer;
- cut the fruit into portions.
Prepare and all the ingredients specified in a specific recipe for pumpkin juice, at home it can be other fruits and fruits, fresh berries, spices, honey, sugar and citric acid.
To store the drink, prepare clean glass jars or bottles that are sterilized.
Getting pumpkin juice for the winter through a juicer
Small pieces of pumpkin are passed through the juicer, and in its absence, through a meat grinder. In the second case, the juice of their resulting mass will have to be wrung out manually, using a twice folded sterile gauze.
And although the fresh pumpkin juice for the winter does not leave, adding to it the taste of sugar, bee honey, a little orange juice or other ingredients, you can impress family members and guests with unusual and very useful drink.
The pumpkin pulp left after receiving the juice should not be thrown away! This is a great product that preserves a lot of useful properties of a vegetable for filling a pie, a delicacy puree or jam.
Women will appreciate the pulp as an ingredient for wound healing, soothing vitamin masks and compresses.
To freshly squeezed at home, pumpkin juice and in the winter pleased the household, it is heated to 90 ° C, kept on fire for 3-5 minutes, and then poured over prepared dishes. Tightly closed containers are cooled and sent to storage in a dark cool place.
Making pumpkin juice for winter by hand
When the juicer or juice maker is not:
- Pumpkin pulp cut into small cubes;
- the raw material is loaded into a bulk pan;
- pour the pulp with water so that the cubes are barely covered with liquid;
- cook pumpkin until softened.
Similarly, you can prepare the raw material if pumpkin cubes bake in the oven, making sure that the vegetable pulp is not dried and burnt. In this case, the pumpkin juice made for winter at home becomes even more fragrant.
Steamed pulp is wiped through a sieve, diluted, if necessary with boiled water, add sugar, citric acid and again heated for 10 minutes, to avoid the risk of spoilage during storage and get a thick pleasant consistency of the drink. For bottling the juice, sterilized glass containers with dense lids are used.
Do not forget that many varieties of pumpkin in a ventilated cool cellar are perfectly kept until the spring next year, so a useful treat, when required, can be prepared from the fruit grown on its bed even in January.
Recipe for pumpkin juice
To get a tasty and healthy juice in the simplest case, you need a large fruit with orange pulp. Pumpkin is cleaned and cut. For 5-6 kg of prepared pumpkin pulp take:
- , kg of granulated sugar;
- 4 liters of water;
- 40 g of citric acid.
Cooking is done on a small fire, making sure that the pumpkin cubes do not stick to the bottom of the pan. When the pumpkin boils, gently remove the foam and continue to cook for another 30 minutes. After that, the pulp is left under the lid to steam, and then another warm mass is wiped through a sieve. The future pumpkin juice is again returned to the fire, stirring, add sugar, citric acid, heated to 90 ° C and cook for about 7-10 minutes. The finished product can be poured on sterile cans, which are hermetically sealed.
Instead of sugar in a pumpkin juice, prepared for the winter, it is possible to add honey, crystalline fructose, to taste.
And replace citric acid with lemon or several oranges. Very useful pumpkin juice with apples, and added during cooking in a drink of dried apricots will make gourmets wonder the taste and its similarity to the southern peaches.
