Saturday, July 16, 2011

Tyfon Greens Juice

Holland greens (also called Tyfon greens) are a member of the brassica rapa family of greens.  It is a cross of the Chinese cabbage and stubble turnips.  Its membership in the brassica rapa family is what prompted me to order the seeds. The phytochemicals in the brassica rapa foods are touted to work in a number of ways to prevent or suppress cancer.   As soon as the seeds arrived from Pinetree Garden Seed and the soil was warm enough, my husband, Tom, planted them.  They quickly germinated and brilliant green leaves appeared soon after.   So, I began to wonder how I would use them.  The seed catalog had described them as milder tasting than most other brassica greens since they don't have any mustard oil in them.  I thought this made them ideally suited for juicing.  This coupled with temperatures warm enough for me to be excited about juicing my vegetables rather than making soups inspired my creation.  I rinsed them thoroughly and put them through the juicer with my other favorite juicing ingredients and was wowed by the refreshing, pure flavor!  I will definitely plant Tyfon greens again next year.  

I talked with the dietician at my medical center about how to calculate nutritional information for juice that is created with a juicer.   She advised me to enter all items as I normally would and simply delete the fiber, since that is what is extracted with a juicer. 

Ingredients:                                                                            
2 cups Holland Tyfon greens (roughly chopped)     
5 -6 kale leaves
1 large cucumber
3 stalks celery
1 cup parsley
1" slice fresh ginger root
1 granny smith apple

Preparation:
Thoroughly wash all ingredients.  Put them through a juicer and sip with delight.   (My juicer is simply a Jack LaLane Juicer, so I usually peel the cucumber and apple before putting it into the juicer.  I also strip the heavy stems from the kale leaves.  This makes it much easier for my juicer to extract the juice from the fiber.)

Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 4
Serving Size: Approx 1 cup
Calories: 66
Total Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 62 mg
Total Carbs: 15 g
Dietary Fiber:  0
Protein:  3 g