You are thinking of going on a juice diet or perhaps you simply want to add a glass or more of healthful juice to your daily diet on a regular basis. But you have a small kitchen that cannot possibly take another appliance, or you don’t have the budget to buy one or you are not sure what you want.
Wait, you do have a blender in your kitchen, don’t you? You can easily juice with a blender and get your glass of goodness.
Using a Blender to Juice
While there are many different kinds and capacities of juicers available, a simple blender can also do the work of juicing your desired fruits and veggies. To make juice with a blender you will need to:
- Wash the fruits and vegetables in the desired combination and up to the capacity of the blender.
- Deseed and de-stone them, removing the skin where required.
- Even if you use a lot of water-containing fruits and veggies, you will still have to add some water to the mixture.
- Blend in short bursts till mostly liquid and then at the highest speed till the entire concoction has liquefied.
- Strain using a wire or plastic sieve – the size of the sieve holes will determine the amount of fiber/pulp that goes into the juice.
- Certain fruits like melons may not need the addition of extra water.
- Drink immediately or store in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.
If you combine fruits and veggies that contain more water with more dense ones, you may need to add very little water to start the blender. Once you start using the blender to juice, you will be able to figure out how much or how little water you need for different combinations.
The Benefits of Using a Blender to Juice
Apart from the budget factor, using a blender to juice has many other advantages. You can actually get more nutrition when you use a blender because
- You can use a larger holed mesh to get more pulpy juice, so get more fiber and nutrients and generate less waste as well.
- You can control the extent of liquefaction of the fruits and vegetables by running the blender for shorter or longer time periods.
- You can pulverize other ingredients (milk, yogurt, nuts, seeds, protein powders or other powder supplements, and even some cereals) with the fruit and veggies in your blender to add more nutrition and thickness, making smoothies that offer better satiety value.
- A blender is very user-friendly and inexpensive models are also available if you don’t have one. It is easy to clean, so more usable and it can be used for other things as well.
If you already have a blender or are ready to buy one at an affordable price, you can start adding juice to your diet immediately and reap the health benefits of juicing.