Garden Vegetable Juice (2024)

A delicious tomato juice drink flavoured with the classic garden aromatics of celery, carrot, onion, pepper and parsley.

This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book.

See also:

• Tomato-Vegetable Juice Blend
• Plain tomato juice

The recipe

If you wish to double or triple the batch, do the math first on paper.

Jar size choices: Eitherhalf-litre (pint) jars OR litre (quart) jars

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 7 x litre (quart) jars

Headspace:2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time:Half-litre (pint) jars for 35 minutes; litre (quart) jars for 40 minutes.Adjust time for altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

How to steam can.

For salt substitute, Herbamare Sodium-Free was used as it is non-bitter and non-clouding.

Recipe notes

• For the tomatoes, you can use any type of tomato.
• This juice breaks the standard rules of only cut and heat tomatoes a few at a time to prevent separation of water and solids. Yet, no separation happens. We’re not sure why.
• It will actually take quite a while to bring the pot to its first simmer. Expect at least around 20 to 25 minutes, depending how powerful your burner is. Stir often during this starting phase to prevent scorching.
• We’re not sure why Ball says not to let the juice boil. We did once by mistake, and nothing terrible seems to have befallen the consistency of the juice, nor did it separate. But there must be a reason.
• If you don’t have a food mill but want to make this, consider peeling and seeding the tomatoes first. Then, after the first simmering, you could simply whiz everything in a food processor.
• Instead of the fresh parsley, you could use 2 tablespoons of dried.
• You could also add other dry seasoning: ground black or white pepper, chile flakes, marjorom, oregano, cayenne pepper, etc.
• Total veg excluding tomato weight is 400 g / 14 oz.
• Ball says, “The measurement for vegetables in the recipe may be decreased, but do not increase the amount of vegetables.”
• If you are cooking by weight, then how big the pieces you chop are won’t matter, as they all get squished in the end.
• Ball calls for ¼ inch (1 cm) headspace on this. Tomato juices are usually ½ inch (2 cm), and we feel more comfortable with that, so we increased it.
• The salt can be omitted, if you wish. It’s there for seasoning, not safety.
• Do not skip the lemon juice/citric acid, or heat processing of the jars. Those things are there for safety.
• Do not add clam juice etc.

Recipe source

Ball Blue Book. Muncie, Indiana: Healthmark LLC / Jarden Home Brands. Edition 37. 2014. Page 34.

Modifications made:

• Increased headspace slightly.
• Added seasoning suggestions including salt sub and other dried seasonings.

Nutrition information

Per 1 cup / 250 ml / 8 0z

• 47 calories, 259 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 point
• Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 2 points

Without salt, sodium is 15 mg per cup

* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal

* PointsPlus™ and SmartPoints™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® registered trademarks.