I thought the title was pretty clever considering I will be talking about Pulp. That’s right, you know how after you get delicious juice from a juicer, you are left with boring old pulp? Well I have news for you folks: You can cook with that pulp!
Tried and tested! My roommate has a juicer so she threw in all her left over fruits and veggies to make a very random, yet healthy, concoction of apples, pears, carrots and tomatoes. Ok so I knew right off the bat that my pulp recipe would be “interesting” with that combination of stuff. I Googled “juicer pulp recipes” and hoped for the best. I found a basic recipe for Carrot Bread and decided to test my luck!
The initial recipe went as follows:
Carrot Pulp Bread (the title doesn’t exactly scream DELICIOUS!)
2/3 cup of vegetable oil
3/4 cup of honey
2 eggs
1-1 /2 cups of carrot pulp
1-1 /2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of sea salt (optional)
This is what is was SUPPOSED to look like...not even close!
Mix the oil and honey together as well as you can, then add the eggs and mix again. Stir in the carrot pulp. Now add the remaining ingredients and mix well … pour the resulting concoction into a greased loaf pan (measuring approximately 8-1/2″ X 4-1/2″ X 2-5/8″) … and bake in a pre-heated 350°F oven for 60 to 65 minutes.
I, however, being innovative and all, decided to make a few substitutions along the way. Instead of 2/3 cup vegetable oil (doesn’t that seem like a ridiculously large amount?!) I put 1/4 cup and added pumpkin puree to moisten it! I also only had 3 little packets of honey from Starbucks instead of the recommended 3/4 cups..woops.
I also used egg whites instead of whole eggs but that was because egg whites were all I had. The more I think about my final result, the more I doubt my substitutions were a good idea. Anyways, I got to the point where it said: “pour into pan..” but mine was more of a “plop into pan…”. At that point I knew my carrot bread wasn’t going to look much like a nice round loaf.
I took it out of the oven after 55 minutes or so and it hadn’t really risen much but seemed cooked enough. I had to try it no matter what it looked like. I picked a piece with my fork and tasted it. Not bad, but not amazing. Pretty bland actually so I decided to use my innovative mind once again and add some plain yogourt and CANADIAN MAPLE SYRUP on top and man oh man was it yummy! Basically the maple syrup was what made the entire thing somewhat tasty but oh well! As I write this, I realize that I could have substituted all the honey for maple syrup…gah!
I didn’t take a picture cause I was too busy getting my hands dirty with pulp and pumpkin puree, but you’re not missing anything. Actually, the image you have in your mind right now is most likely a lot nicer than the real deal!
Moral of the story: don’t be too innovative if you’ve only recently started to cook. Cooking with pulp is possible!
Grandma, I feel like you would have some valuable advice to add here, please share!
Not Too Shabby Gabby 