How To Make Fresh Juice Without A Juicer

April 12th, 2011 - filed under: The Food » Recipes

Last week I wrote about why I adore drinking vegetable juice, and now I’m excited to show you how you can enjoy this healthy treat as well – even if you don’t own a juicer! That’s right, no expensive appliances are needed. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that healthy eating costs a ton of money. Sure, I love my trusty Champion and my Vita Mix makes me swoon, but these fancy gizmos are for fun and for ease, not for necessity.

Making juice sans juicer is procedurally identical to making nut milk. This is best done in a blender, but I photographed this series in a food processor to demonstrate that it can be done this way as well. Hell, you could probably even use an immersion blender if that’s all you’ve got. Do what you gotta do!

You’ll need:
fresh organic produce of choice (I go light on fruit to avoid an insulin spike/crash)
food processor or blender
sprouting bag/cheesecloth/mesh strainer (I use a sprouting bag, but many raw foodists just buy a paint straining bag from a hardware store)
various containers, and a funnel helps

Step 1: Rough chop all produce and place it into the food processor/blender. Add 1 cup water to start – you may need to add more.

Step 2: Blend!

Step 3: Line a large bowl with your sprouting bag or cheesecloth. Pour the entire contents of the blender into the bowl. If using a mesh strainer, pour the blender contents through the strainer, over a large bowl.

Step 4: Use your hands to squeeeeze all the liquid out of the produce pulp. You’ll end up with a big bowl of veggie juice! Transfer it to a tall glass (here’s where that funnel will help) and drink immediately.

Don’t forget to save your pulp! There’s still lots of fiber and micronutrients in there. Throw it into soups, casseroles, breads (a la zucchini or banana, not so much french or sandwich), sauces, and raw crackers. I always add mine to my homemade dog food, but that’s a whole other post . . .

So now you have no excuses! Fresh veggie juice, vibrant and alive with vitamins and minerals, is yours for the taking. Drink up!

http://www.rebeccahawkes.co.uk Rebecca

Brilliant! I have always wanted to create juice for smoothie recipes but only own a blender and my kitchens too small for another appliance! Will definitely be using this process. Do you have any scrummy juice combinations to look forward to?
http://windycityvegan.wordpress.com Monika {windycityvegan}

This is fantastic – thanks for reminding us how easy it can be to do this sort of stuff without fancy pantsy appliances! It’s also a good reminder for those days when I don’t want to schlep out the juicer on account of clean up, or worrying that Nina will get her little fingers caught. She’s very familiar with blender safety issues and I’m more comfortable letting her help with it, rather than the juicer.

And wow, I can’t believe I never thought to add my pulp to raw crackers…mine goes into risotto, or is a treat for my hens. :)
anon

Bless you, child. ;)
http://www.creativeanomalie.com sarah

Dog food? I hope this leads into another post… I have read quite a bit about raw dog food and such, but I would be curious to hear what you guys do for your pups (ours get a mix of Kirkland Adult and Nature’s Domain grain-free).
http://www.etsy.com/shop/KristinFriesen Kristin

Can you recommend any produce combos that you’ve found particularly tasty? What did you use in the photos shown?
http://oliviajeankeepinitgreen.blogspot.com Olivia Jean

Yes! Gonna do this tomorrow morning :D
http://easierthanyouthink.wordpress.com Ginger Baker

I will definitely give this a try. And, don’t forget, it you don’t manage to use it in time for crackers, etc., you can always throw it in the compost!
Dana

Looks great, I am going to try this as soon as I can. I have a terrible cold that just will not go away, i could sure use the vitamins….
But I do have the same question as Kristin: what combo’s are tasty? Do you have recipes?
http://everblossom.net Kylie

I was literally JUST thinking about trying to figure out how to do this the other day. Thanks for taking it off my to-do list! Can’t wait to try it. xo
http://thegreengeek05.wordpress.com Courtney

Thank you! Now I just have to afford the veggies to chop up.
http://lovesveggies.blogspot.com/ Lindsay

Love this post! Although I have a juicer, my boyfriend does not, and when I’m visiting him I’m always bumming around missin’ my veggie juice! I’ve heard of this method before but I love your step-by-step pics and advice. I reuse my pulp too–can’t let it go to waste!! :)
http://radiomomrhetoric.wordpress.com/ RadiomomRhetoric

kinda kicking myself for not grabbing the juiceman I saw at the thrift store last weekend…wonder if it is still there??? I can certainly do this though!! EASY! Thanks! (I love wheat grass juice)
http://www.naturallyseasoned.blog.com Lauren

I will be trying this soon! I got a juicer off of freecycle a few months ago but after I googled to find the user manual I found out it had been recalled because parts could break and send shards of sharp materials flying! I want some fresh juice and all but yikes!
I too would be interested in your juice recipes.
Richard

Homemade dog food? Looking forward to that I just started looking after a dog, he eats vegan dried dog food lentels and loves broccili and coliflower but I could definatly give him some of the lefts vers from this as well :)
MathTutor

Love the cutting boardt…I have exactly the same one! =P
Nina

Please do tell more about the dog food too :)
RawJoy

I actually prefer this because it was always seemed such a hassle to take apart and clean the juicer. Had to do it almost immediately so it didn’t get all gunky. With my vitamix, I just fill the container it with water it while I go enjoy my juice. I finally got rid of my juicer altogether.
Kathryn

Awesome, I love juice! When you add the pulp to breads, do you just throw it in…? As a replacement for adding the zucchini to zucchini bread, etc.?
Amanda

I think we all want to hear about your homemade from pulp dog food!
http://oliviajeankeepinitgreen.blogspot.com Olivia Jean

LOOK I did it :D

http://oliviajeankeepinitgreen.blogspot.com/2011/04/veggie-juicing.html
http://twitter.com/erosan erosan

@Olivia: whoohooo!!! you make me want to go juice something right now! :P

And, maybe I will…
http://twitter.com/erosan erosan

Ok, I’ll chip in my experience. This works perfectly!

The juice is good. Although next time, I’ll have to pick my ingredients better… I pretty much just grabbed whatever catched my eye on the fridge (a couple of baby carrots (carrot tops includded), a little cucumber, and a peach. The resulting juice tastes… interesting. Not bad though.

And so simple to make!
http://alternativehousewife.com Janine @ Alternative Housewife

Great post! I may have to try this. I do a lot of green smoothies and just drink with a big straw but I like the idea of green juice. The baby loves juice (duh) but I feel guilty giving him more than a sip of the fruity stuff (even the unfiltered organic fruity stuff).

Dying to know how you do your dog food. We do about 50/50 storebought to homemade but a big part of that is ground meat.
Amanda

Oooo… homemade dog food……?! Watching for that one later! :] I only have a processor, and I’m so glad you’re blogging about how it can still be done!! Thanks, Sayward!! :] <3
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

Yay, I’m SO happy this is interesting to so many of you. I love the idea of making fresh healthy food *accessible*! As far as recipes, the truth is that I haven’t posted any for the same reason I don’t really post smoothie recipes – they’re so dang forgiving, and I pretty much change it every time, so it feels like “cheating”. BUT, I can definitely post tips and guidelines, and share some of my favorite flavor combinations. I’ll work on that for sure. =)

And dog food! Yes, that one is definitely in the works. I’m planning to do a whole series. Coming soon!

@ Monika – Risotto is a great idea for juicer pulp!

@ Kristin – In the pictures I used 2 stalks of celery, a tangerine, half a cucumber, and about 6 large chard leaves. It wasn’t my best juice (I’m finding that 3 or *less* ingredients works best), but it was good.

@ Courtney – Check out this post, an oldie but goody (http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2009/06/five-ways-to-fill-up-on-fruits-veggies-without-breaking-the-bank/), for tips on securing super cheap produce.

@ Math Tutor – I LOVE the bamboo cutting board. =)

@ Kathryn – If it’s the pulp from just one small-medium juice, then I’d say you could throw it into a recipe as an addition without any adjustments. But what I do, since I juice every day, is save my pulp in the fridge for a few days. If you don’t juice every day you can save your pulp in the freezer. Then when you have a bunch you can use it to replace all of the zucchini/bananas/carrots in a zucchini/banana/carrot bread recipe.

@ Olivia Jean – YAY! Looks great, awesome little tutorial and SO RAD that your kids liked it!

@ Erosan – Again, YAY, I’m so thrilled that people are trying this and reporting back. I bet juiced peach is amazing.

Thanks everyone! And I hear your interest – dog food post coming soon. =)
Melisa

If I get a paint straining bag, do I need to do anything to clean it before using it for edibles?
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

@ Melisa – Yeah I wondered about that as well, which is why I just bought the actual sprouting bag. But I’d say ask Kristen over at Kristen’s Raw (http://kristensraw.com/blog/) as she’s always talking about using paint bags and I’m sure she’s done her homework!
Britt

Oh, no way! Kristensraw! I know her!! Well, not personally, but I discovered her right before I discovered you! :) It’s when I was prego and got all into green hemp protein shakes! Then I found you when I was looking up homemade detergent and such (and found so much more!), and haven’t gone back to Kristen! I’ll have to revisit. Anyway, that’s totally wild. What a small world the world wide web is, isn’t it??

Mmm, that’s all! Random tidbit!
http://exoticdonkeymeat.com Kate

Going to try the ‘throw the pulp in a bread’ tip tonight!! I’ll let you know how it goes.

…and it’s going in VEGAN bread. NOM NOM NOM NOM.
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

@ Kate – Ooh, let us know how it goes!
http://www.mynaturallyfrugalfamily.blogspot.com Rachel

Homemade dog food…do your wonders ever cease? I am continually amazed and inspired by your blog…in fact I have been reading it WAY too long today. Thanks for the information and inspiration.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KDNFZXRCHYCDOZPIQ4WTK3NPL4 JamieR

How do you make your homemade dog food? My dog is on special food for her health (she gets crystals in her urine) but i would love to try doing something homemade and vegan for her!
Nichole.Serquina

What kind of food processor do you recommend? My brain is spinning after reading reviews of all kinds on Amazon. I just want something basic and that can handle what you talk about here in this post. Thanks!
Nichole

What kind of food processor do you recommend? My brain is spinning after reading reviews of all kinds on Amazon. I just want something basic and that can handle what you talk about here in this post. Thanks!
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

I haven’t had enough luck yet to share my recipes/techniques, but if you’re interested in homemade dog food (that’s vegan), you may want to check out this site.

Luck!
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Honestly, I don’t know enough about the different brands to really offer an opinion. Sorry!
Fgdsfgfdg

lml r0fl idk if thet will work
C2butterfly

My mom and I love the following combination. The ginger size may vary depending on how spicey but it us a key ingredient to tie the flavors together…it sort of acts as a seasoning and overcomes the strong beet & celery flavor.
Half beet
Two carrots
Three apples
Two celery stalk
a handful of grapes
One quarter thin slice ginger…best to juice this last.
Terril Teran

WOW! You are soo awesome! I wanted a food processor, juicer, blender all in one becuase I really wasnt sure what I needed. I dont have alot of money and your post has been very helpful! Woo hoo! Thank you!
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