Hold your apples! Six recipes you can make with your leftover apple juice

If you’re a household of juice guzzlers, chances are that leftover juice is a rare occurrence. But if you find yourself with an extra half carton after cocktails the night before, then these leftover apple juice recipes are for you. 

As it turns out, apple juice is a hard-working ingredient – perfect for breakfast today, and your secret baking ingredient tomorrow. Here are our favourite apple juice recipes for you to make the most of those leftovers.

1) Apple cider vinegar

Whether you’ve hopped on the ACV trend or not, apple cider vinegar is incredibly handy to have around the house. Drink first thing in the morning, use it as a vinaigrette, or even shine the bathroom sink with it, the list is endless. Here’s how you can turn that leftover apple juice into a multipurpose household essential. 

To create an acid cider vinegar that will last for months to come, you simply ferment three ingredients for one month (see directions here). This recipe is for 4.5 litres, but you can amend it depending on how much apple juice you have left over.

Ingredients: (This recipe makes approx. 4.5L)

• 3.8L Eager apple juice
• 1g wine yeast, hydrated in 60 ml distilled water warmed to 40°C, or 118ml room-temperature wild yeast starter
• 237ml raw, unpasteurised, unfiltered vinegar

2) Apple sauce 

Transform your leftover apple juice from Saturday’s cocktails into a condiment fit for your Sunday pork roast in just 30 minutes. Combine apples, Eager apple juice, cinnamon and sugar (both optional) in a medium-sized saucepan, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until it’s soft enough to blend. Serve warm or let cool, pack away and keep for up to seven days. 

Ingredients: (This recipe makes 240g)

• 4 apples peeled, cored and chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 120 ml Eager apple juice
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (optional)
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

3) Slow cooker pulled pork

For a summer party in the garden or a mid-week meal, this pulled pork packs a ton of flavour. First, prepare the pork by covering the joint with flour and the spices mixed together. Then, fry the onions in the oil and, once browned, roll the pork joint in flour once more and lay on top of the onions, searing until golden. For the delicious marinade, mix garlic, Eager apple juice, black treacle, honey, apple cider vinegar and marmalade, pour over the pork joint, put the lid on, and slowly cook on low for 8 hours. 

Ingredients: (Serves 8-10 people)

For preparing the pork

• 2kg pork shoulder, skin removed
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 tsp oil

For the marinade

• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 160ml Eager apple juice
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 50g onion marmalade

4) Apple juice cake 

This apple juice bundt cake may look impressive but, with the apt nickname ‘leftover cake’, you can expect the ingredients to be knocking around in your cupboard.

Simple to make, you just need to ensure the wet and dry ingredients are mixed separately before combining, and you’ll have a crowd-pleasing cake to enjoy at the end.

Preheat your oven to 160 C and grease and flour a bundt pan. Then combine flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon in a bowl. In a larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Alternately add the flour mixture and the apple juice, beginning and ending with the flour, aiming for three additions of flour and two of juice. Then fold in the raisins and nuts until your batter is mixed and ready for the oven. Bake in the 160 C oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes - then leave to fully cool before pouring over the glaze.

To prepare the glaze, stir the Eager apple juice and icing sugar until it’s thick but pourable - pour over the cake to serve and enjoy.

Ingredients: (Serves 10-12 people)

For the cake

• 600g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon rock salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 400g granulated sugar
• 240g vegetable spread
• 2 large eggs
• 237ml Eager apple juice
• 200g raisins
• 150g mixed nuts

For the glaze

• 200g icing sugar
• 59ml Eager apple juice

5) Apple & walnut salad

Fresh and flavourful, this salad is made for summer soirées. With very little prep work, you can whip this up in no time while using leftover Eager apple juice. Super easy from start to finish, just cut up the apples to the size you choose, toss everything together, and add the Eager apple juice-infused salad dressing to serve – enjoy!

Ingredients: (Serves 6 people)

For the salad

• 400g salad of your choice 
• 1 red apple
• 1 green apple
• 200g walnuts - roughly chopped
• 4-6 bacon strips - cooked and chopped (optional)
• 113g crumbled feta cheese
• 113g dried cranberries

For the dressing

• 240ml Eager apple juice
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 100g olive oil

6) Apple juice smoothie 

One of the easiest ways to use up any leftover juice is to put it into your favourite breakfast smoothie. Pick any fruit or yoghurt from your fridge and pop them in to blend with Eager apple juice. The perfect get-up-and-go treat, this recipe takes only a couple of minutes from start to finish. One of our favourite recipes is to add the Eager apple juice in the blender with frozen fruit and Greek yoghurt, blend, and you’re done! Easy, delicious, and cooling – what could be better?

Ingredients: (Serves 2 people)

• 350ml Eager apple juice
• 470ml assorted frozen fruit (we used cherries, raspberries, blueberries and mango)
• 177ml Greek yoghurt
• Additional fruit and/or mint sprigs for garnish (optional)

We love seeing your homemade creations. Tag us in your leftover recipes on Instagram @eagerdrinks – we can’t wait to see what you make.