Making Juice With a Blender
I almost never know how to write titles for a post like this. Yeah, I could look like a super-professional, knowledgeable blogger and kitchen-dweller with a title like "How to Make Juice With Your Blender," but the words "how to" seem to imply some sort of long-term experience.
The truth is last week I wanted to make juice. I don’t have a juicer and don’t want to spend the money on it so I thought "Why not give it a whirl in the blender?". Suddenly I’m sharing my "experience" with a thousand of my closest friends.
Yep, super professional… that’s me.
The truth is I have never actually made fresh juice before and my one memory of fresh vegetable juice was back in my less-than-health-minded college days when I went home to visit my Dad. I dragged myself out of bed at the crack of dawn (aka 10 a.m.), stumbled to the kitchen, and had the following exchange with my Dad:
- Dad: "Here, have some juice!"
- Me: "It’s green."
- Dad: "It’s good for you."
(I take a sip.)
- Me: (horrified) "It tastes like broccoli!"
- Dad: "It’s broccoli juice."
(I hand back the glass and stumble to the refrigerator for the much tastier pasteurized, enzyme-free, glass of fructose called orange juice.)
So, yeah, a few things have transpired since I was 20. Things like eight years, two babies, and all of the emotional and (ahem) physical changes that go with that process. Let’s just say fructose is not kind to the "battle scars" one receives in bearing children.
And by battle scars I mean the fact that my belly never went back to where it started. I’m still only talking to my closest friends, right?
Last week I made green juice and I liked it. I didn’t buy a juicer because I already had a fairly nice blender that I won in one of those really fun blog-giveaway contests. (Thanks, Ricki!)
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Here’s How I Did It
- Place 1-2 cups of water in the blender. One cup should result in enough juice for two people.
- Chop vegetables fine, like you’re making a soup. So celery, carrots, cucumbers, hard fruits etc. should all be diced. Greens should be roughly chopped.
- Add 1 cup of chopped vegetables to blender. Blend on low for 10 seconds and then on high for an additional 10 seconds, adjusting for your blender.
- Add more vegetables, blending between batches, until you have a smoothie-like consistency like the green delight you see in the above photo.
- Place a tea towel over a strainer or a narrow, deep bowl. Now pour enough of the blender-mixture into the towel that will allow you to pull up all four corners of the towel around the pulp.
- Pull up the four corners of the towel and allow it to drip for a couple of minutes before beginning to twist the handle of the towel and squeeze out the remaining juice. Keep squeezing until the pulp is as dry as possible. This will take a few minutes and some elbow grease. Place pulp in compost.
- Repeat with remaining blender-mixture. Voila, you have watered-down fresh vegetable juice!
Have you tried making fresh juice? What’s your favorite combination?
i think i would like that better than a green smoothie actually. and p.s. – after delivering a 9 lb. 12 oz. baby – my belly will never look the same either no matter how many green juices or crunches I do. But, I love that kid more than anything!!
Don’t throw the pulp out! 🙂 That’s all the good stuff! Use it in cooking, soups, meat pies, rice as it’s cooking, whatever, but you need those nutrients!
A juicer is no good for you anyway because it separates all the good stuff out and basically is glorified fructose. 🙂
If you do want to ever buy something that makes a juice, buy a vitamix, blendtec or even a montel williams health master or ninja. You can get a ninja for $50 on qvc.
This way you can juice WHOLE FRUITS and VEGETABLES and get the benefit of the entire fruit or vegetable. Mix it up, think V8 juice.
But, what you’re doing is great, just save the pulp and use it for something else.
A green drink sounds good. I think I’ll go whip one up just like you did. But I’ll keep the pulp! 🙂
Katie – Excellent point about adding it to soup! One of the reasons I am making juice is because it DOESN’T have the fiber. I know that goes against everything we’ve ever been taught, but my husband is on a healing elimination diet right now and raw fibrous fruits and veg are not allowed.
@katie, This is great, katie! I read an article that was on the fence about drinking/consuming the pulp,so I now know that it is perfectly fine 🙂 Thank you!
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing! I have always (okay not always, but ever since I changed our eating ways) wanted to make fresh juice but could not afford a juicer. I wondered if I could do it in a blender, and now I know I can!
Many blessings,
Mrs. Q
Who needs “super-professional” – I’ll take real life experience over that any day of the week! This definitely gives me the kick to do this – I’ve been kind of depressed over comments left to questions regarding blender v. juicer. Even had one author tell me that she couldn’t BELIEVE I wanted to use a blender to juice anything, it just wasn’t possible!
Phooey. I’ll use my blender if I want to!
For some strange reason I can’t reply to one of the comments above, so I will do so here. 🙂
Doesn’t a Blendtec or Vitamix do the same thing Shannon did here? They are not juicers, just really powerful blenders. You would still have to strain the mixture to get just the juice.
I agree to save the pulp too!
Kate – I’m with you! The people that tell you that, in order to respect you, would have to come to the terms that they just dumped a ‘mint’ on a really expensive tool for nonsense. Besides, if they can’t convince you to click on a link on their blog and buy something, they’ve failed, in their minds.
That’s why I like blogs like these – they tell you what they think, based on their experience, they do have links to sponsors, but they tell you straight up about it and they’re not forced to give an opinion one way or another.
It’s hard to get a straight answer anymore. It’s a shame.
Whole foods is the way to go, that I know for sure! The ones I mentioned are glorified blenders. But, til we get one, it’s the blender for us too! 🙂
Katie – It means a lot to me that you appreciate that about my site. Thanks for saying so!
@katie,
Hi katie: I just tried this with a blender and it is great. Have enough for 2 servings.
I did parsley, carrots and apple.
Hi Corinne,
I couldn’t reply either. 🙂
The point of buying those ones is so you don’t have to strain the pulp out! I understand tho it is kinda tricky until you get the hang of it, you might have to pulse quite a bit at first and most people, like me, just want to run the thing and walk away!
We have a Blendtec on the way, and I’ll let you know. But that’s not the only reason we bought it because we do have a blender and have used it every day (and replaced it a dozen times). So for us, it’s worth it to invest in the Cadillac’s (Vitamix) competition especially since you can make payments on it on QVC. I’m tired of buying a new blender each year. :/
We also want to use it to grind wheat and knead dough since our kitchen aid gave up on us a few weeks ago. I think it can be fixed with a $10 part, but the wheat grinding was enough of an excuse for us! 🙂
Well, I couldn’t stand it so I found a link!
http://www.vitamix.com/household/health/juice.asp
The juices on the bottom don’t look real “pulpy” and they don’t mention anything about straining. 🙂 Maybe now I’ll actually use my cheesecloth for cheese!!!
I’m having trouble replying too 🙁
My babe was 9lbs12oz too!!! My pre-pregnancy weight was about 120. I’m back down to size, but really there seems to be no “toning” the belly back 🙁
Has anyone used a ninja blender? I’ve considered a blend-tec or vitamix but I feel like I’ll have to save money for YEARS to buy one! lol
Right now I just have an oster beehive blender, which is sufficient and fits a mason jar on it for smoothies which is AWESOME!
Steena – Yeah, I need to fix something that is preventing the comment reply function. Thanks!
Have you heard of a Vitamix (I’m guessing you have)? Making “juice” in the blender is one of their selling points, where you throw in everything you’d use to make juice but just drink it straight up (with no straining). I made “juice” like this before I had a Vitamix, which I guess is technically a green smoothie. Even though the blender doesn’t blend it up as finely, it was still good without being strained. My concern with the straining, especially a tea towel, is that you would be straining out some of the potential nutrients. It seems like a fine mesh sieve (stainless steel) would be more appropriate, without a towel. Even a simple paper coffee filter can filter out particular coffee oils (unfiltered coffee can raise cholesterol levels because of that connection). Because of that, I wonder if the fat soluble nutrients would not make it through a tea towel. Just a few thoughts!
the best thing I’ve found for straining things like this, or for making nut milk or whey, are the nut milk bags. Super inexpensive and easy!
I just screwed in a small hook into the bottom of one of my cabinets and hang the bag over a bowl. Works like a charm.
My husband has been making us “green drinks” in the morning: a handful of garden weeds (alfalfa, comfrey, lamb’s quarters), an apple, maybe a squeeze of lemon, mix in blender and voila! Even the kids have been digging it!
I do have a Vitamix, and I LOVE it! If you want to make more of a “juice” than a smoothie, you would need to blend in plenty of water. Just be careful how long you let it blend…it can warm up to the consistency of soup within 2 minutes.
Thank you! I’m going to give this a try! I read somewhere that the pulp can be saved for baking and other uses? Anyone else use their pulp?
Brilliant…just brilliant! I’ve been wanting fresh juice, but can’t buy a juicer because I have no room for new appliances in my tiny kitchen! I’m going to make juice right now, and strain it in a nut milk bag. Thanks for the great idea!
🙂
You made me laugh about the “battle scars”. Although it is true. I have three kids and the smallest was 8lbs. 1 oz. and the largest 11lbs. 10 oz. My stomach will never be the same! In fact they (dr.s) suggest surgery but I’m not sure that’s necessary. I may give this a try, I have a vita-mix so it should work. I wonder if it taste better than juice from a juicer? We had a champion juicer for several years but I really didn’t care for the juice, I’d rather have eaten the whole fruit.
I am excited to try this. I desperately need to exercise and juice. Thanks for sharing.
Denise, you mentioned crunches. I read this article yesterday. Its not my blog but it explains how to get the results you are looking for. Well many of us desire.
http://fit2be.us its a blog with an articles about how to have a flat stomach. Thought it would be helpful.
I don’t buy that all you get with this is glorified fructose, but for the sake of argument let’s say it is…. I’d rather get my kids to drink this than the colorful high fructose corn syrup drinks that you get at the store. At least with this they’ll get used to veggies. Lord knows how hard it is to get a toddler to eat a beet…. Or their father for that matter! ;D
I am looking to change my diet hence blending veg. I want to try this. why cant you drink the pulp with the juice?
Marie – I think you could without any problems.
Thanks for the blog. I needed recipes for the blender. My favorite is parsley and pear. You hardly taste the parsley. Make sure you taste the parsley before you buy it since some are bitter. Just don’t have it every day. You need to keep the variety in!
I love juicing with my blender! Of course I only really started doing it since last night but still 🙂 And I DO save my pulp because I want to make whole grain muffins or bread with it, kind of like Zucchini bread lol. Ohh and I bought a pair of panty hose to strain my pulp and it can get a little messy but it is sooo worth it! ~~~~~Thanks for the great read!!
I have always held back on trying a juice in my blender because I don’t have a proper juicer. This article gave me the nerve to just go ahead. I didn’t strain it, but was still happy to drink a pulpy healthy drink. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Thanks!
I made an apple, celery, spinach, cilantro juice.
I also made a tomato, celery, garlic cold “soup”.
hi – i enjoyed reading this very much. i have a question: the fruits and some vegs – have a lot of sugar – natural sugar of course – but doesn’t that get converted into fat? for cleansing and trying to rid of excess for better digestion and passing through the colon, is that something to be concerned about? or is it a nominal amount (again, as good sugar as it is) that its ok?
I have the ninja & tried spinach two apples,celery,bunch of parsley & ginger root (from dr .Oz) but it didn’t pulverize all of it ~it was very chunky…. so I am going to order the nutrabullet which pulverizes everything seeds n all (that’s all the nutrients) you can get one at khols for 120 so that’s what I’m gonna do,I will use my ninja for protein shakes
I love your writing style you had me smiling all the way through thank you! I have almost every kitchen appliance and gadget you could possibly have but my juicer is so difficult to clean I will be having a go in my blender and the juicer will probably go to Scope.
I only used my juicer to make carrot juice Jamaican style but that is hardly healthy but I’ve used the pulp for carrot cake just adding a bit of the juice back in for a better flavour.
I’ve over chopped for my stir fry and fruit salad so will be making some juice in just a wee while inspired by you so thanks again! Like some of your other readers I’ll be drinking the pulp as I don’t mind it at all and I’m so clumsy I know I’ll just make a big mess otherwise 🙂
Hi,
Great info, I too didn’t want to splash out on juicer. Just one question:
Instead of trashing a T-towel, could you just use a sieve to drain the juice into a jug?
This is a fantastic article and just what I needed to answer my questions! thank you!
Hi!
Do you know what the difference is in nutritional value when comparing juice that is a product of straining a blended concoction vs. juice produced by a juicer. Is blending as successful in extracting the nutrients from the fruit/vegetables? Thank you so much.
.Ronnie
Was inspired by the no waste juicing method of the guy from the movie ‘Fat, Overweight and Almost Dead’ (or something like that). I think that unit is pretty pricey though, but EVERYTHING goes, and stays in the juice, right till the end….no pun intended.
Had “researched” options, bought a juicer for proper juicing of greens, and just felt weird about throwing away all that pulp, and the clean-up with my regular juicer – holey moley!
No, blending is just fine, pulp and all. Just be selective and research your ingredients and experiment every now and then.
@EL Family Group, Has anyone considered removing the bulk (not all) of the pulp with a potato ricer? It just seems so much easier than trying to push it through a sieve.
I definitely have a sweet tooth! That being said, I absolutely adore a fresh juice now and then.
Hello Shannon, thanks for sharing this Article About Juice making with a Blender, I’ll try to make juice as per your recipe. hope it will be a good one. Thanks Again for your Dedication…