HOMEMADE COPYKAT V8 JUICE (SPICY AND NON-SPICY)

Steps:

• 1. Gather your tomatoes. Wash your tomatoes. Pick off the stems. Now Process them...meaning either use a vegetable press (easiest) because you don;t have to core or peel the maters or you can use a food sieve, following the directions that came with the tool, or use old fashion strainer and spatula after coring and peeling them. Ugh. been there, done that. SUCKS ! * At any rate, when your done here you should have a nice collection of raw (bland) tomato juice. SEEDLESS and SKINLESS...SMOOTH it will be a thin consistency. Place your juice into a large stockpot ( a 20 qt. works well.) and crank up the heat.
• 2. Time to prepare the other Veggies: wash all veggies.Peel the beets and cut into 1 inch cubes, peel onions and cut into chunks, no need to peel carrots or cukes just cut into chunks, peel the garlic, cut the celery into 2 inch pieces (use leaves too), cut the green pepper in quarters, discard the seeds, then cut in half length-ways, lastly ready your greens (spinach, parsley, bay leaves). * TIP: process your greens with the more moist veggies a little each time, add some of the tomato juice from the pot if needed. Now take your handy dandy Ninja of food processor and start chopping all these veggie away, no magic order, no magic way, whatever works for you. As you get each batch chopped pretty fine (because unless you have a giant processor, it'll never fit in one load) empty into the pot with the tomatoes, stir it in each time until all the veggies are in the pot with the tomatoes. * TIP: When processing, add a little juice from the pot it makes it easier to process and empty the veggies into pot. By now the juice should be boiling or near boiling. If not let it come to a slow boil, then proceed to seasoning
• 3. TIME FOR SEASONING !! By now the juice should at a nice steady slow simmer. Again no magic here. Add in to the now Vegetable Juice the Sugar, Salt, Black Pepper, and Worcestershire Sauce. Let this come to a boil and simmer for 15 min. Time for a taste test? Is it to spicy, salty, or sweet, or not enough of any of these....this is where to adjust your seasonings. Going for spicy go ahead and add in the lower amount of Horseradish, Cayenne and Franks Red Hot sauce. I suggest that you let the additional spices simmer in for a good 15-30 minutes and then re-test. After you are satisfied with the taste; let the Juice simmer for another hour or two. Foam will tend to rise to the top, not to be alarmed, skim it off with a spoon and discard.
• 4. After the Juice has cooled down a bit; we are going to put it back all back through the blender/ninja one more time, to blend in all the cooked veggies and get a better viscosity, process the juice in batches for 1 minute each, then put into a clean pot to be ready for canning. At this point you can either strain it further or leave it as is, I prefer it as is, but your call. After all the juice has been reprocessed the consistency should be substantially thicker than what you started , way back at the raw tomato stage. SO... Know it's drinkable, chillable, and can-able (not to be confused with cannibal).
• 5. CANNING: you can continue on to canning right away or refrigerate the juice until your ready. When your ready Gather your canning jars (this batch should make around 12 quarts). Sanitize your jars and keep them warm (dishwasher works good for this set on dry) Put your stockpot of juice that your going to can on the stove, heat it up to a simmer. Get your canner ready. Once the juice is at a simmer take your quart jars and place 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (or equivalent) and 1/2 teaspoon of basil in the jar. Fill to within 1/2" of top, wipe rim if necessary, place properly prepared lid on top, screw on the ring just finger tight, place in canner. Process in water bath canner for 45 minutes, if using pressure canner follow mfg. instructions. When finished carefully remove cans from canner and set somewhere solid and secure on a towel and away from any cold or drafts. Let set overnight, insure that each jar has sealed properly, label, date and store.