Juicing (and more) with a blender in... 
Invincible
15 y
38,911
R
† Cross †
Hello!
I wanted to post some tips on making amazing fresh juices and smoothies using a blender.
I have owned a champion juicer and a green star twin gear juicer. They're great for juicing but ultimately very time consuming and messy. Cleaning up afterwards was always a tedious chore. It was always a pain to cut everything up in order to feed down the chute.
I bought myself a high speed Blendtec blender (3 HP but blends at 2HP) - and now use that to make all my juices. It is incredibly fast, and so easy to clean. I sold my juicers and have never looked back!
All I do is put everything I want as a juice into the 1.5 litre blender container, add around 1/4 water (I always drank diluted juice anyway) and then blend on high for 30 seconds or so. I don't cut anything up - it's unnecesary. After that, I put everything through a nut milk bag (nylon mesh cloth or cheese cloth will do) - it's like milking a cow :-)
The juice is PERFECT! A high speed blender like this will not warm/cook the juice, it remains perfectly cold.
A Blendtec or Vitamix will make wheatgrass or barley grass juicing a doddle. (I don't think you'll get good grass juice out of lower powered blenders though, but you could try and see.) Try adding a lemon to the grass - makes it actually taste good :-)
And of course, the blender also makes the best smoothies ever! Raw cacao, maca, mesquite, coconut oil, raw honey, chia or flax seed, pinch of himalayan sea salt, water and some almond or hazelnut nut milk is blissful!
Of course, if you want to get even more creative, you can add gynostemma or pau d'arco tea instead of the water and spices like cloves, cardamon, cinammon and medicinal mushroom powders or tinctures like reishi, cordyceps etc. I sometimes add a little spirulina. I almost always add some schizandra berry as well - it has all the 5 flavours and makes the taste well rounded. You can make this thicker with a few more raw nuts and then freeze for 1 hour for a truly raw, vegan ice cream!!
A Vitamix or Blendtec is expensive - but they are made to last for years and years and make things really simple.
I even use the blender instead of a food processor to make salsa or a flax/chia seed cracker mix ready for the dehydrator.
I used to own a Vitamix, but when the Blendtec became available in the UK, I traded mine in. I like the Vitamix because it has the wooden plunger ... also it has a 2 litre capacity, instead of the 1.5 one with the Blendtec (I think you can get larger size ones in America) - but I have to give the Blendtec top marks for ease of cleaning because it's digital and has a wipe clean surface, whereas the Vitamix has nobs where food bits always end up getting stuck.
Another thing that is wonderful is that a blender like this is so portable and lightweight compared to a heavy duty juicer. (both are equally noisy though!)
For juicing with a blender, I normally add at least 70% greens and the rest fruit. (If you're new, or getting kids started, try 30% greens to start with.)
There is nothing more beneficial to your health than getting a daily dose of the good stuff. Forget supplements before you use this type of food as your medicine.
Buy organic if you can and always look for the best quality greens and fruit that are in season - Ripe and Fresh. The juice is only as good as the quality of fruit and veg you use.
Do a google search for wild edibles in your neighbourhood. You'll be surprised at all the wonderful free stuff you can add to your blender that is growing wild in the parklands near you. In the last month, half my juice blends have been made from wildcrafted nettles, dandelion leaves, blackberries, wild watercress - all available for free!
Best of health!
Love
Maya
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- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... wuzwad
15 y
33,415
This is a reply to # 1,502,896Oh my!
Some of the ingredients you have! Around here I feel lucky if I get to juice a couple of fresh apples, maybe a carrot!
Small town, no decent stores, no gardens.....
Sure would be great to heal and get healthy on the things you mention!
I feel healthier just reading your post!
wuz- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,742
MoreThis is a reply to # 1,502,938
Hey Wuzzie :-)
I also juice a lot of sprouts. You can grow them even without a garden and they are so healthy and nutritious!!!
Check this site: http://www.sproutpeople.com/
1 tablespoon of seeds will produce at least a cup of sprouts that will be ready for eating/adding to salads or for juicing in 5-7 days - and that cup of sprouts will be healthier than a plateful of regular vegetables.
Sprouts are living food. Amazing health benefits! Alive with enzymes.
All you need are seeds, a glass jar and a way to drain the water (that you'll rinse twice a day) and a windowsill.
How easy is that? No excuses!!
Alfalfa is a very good one to try at first - it has a light flavour and is yummylicious.
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,742
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Corey
15 y
33,322
This is a reply to # 1,502,896
I, too, have a good juicer that I use but is tough to clean. Lots of times I will grind a few different veggies, etc in a blender so I can get the pulp also. No waste there.
I like your idea about using the blender for a juicer. Sometimes I go on a juice diet and you do offer a good alternative to the juicer.
Thank you!!!
Corey - Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Anja
15 y
33,359
This is a reply to # 1,502,896thanks for all the tips, I"m venturing into this raw diet, I'm about 80% right now.
I got the Blend-Tec recently and love it. When I do the fruit/greens, though, I usually make a smoothie. I feel the same about my juicer as you (I have a green star, used to have a Norwalk and gave it to a friend), and both are so time consuming to use and clean up, so I like your nut milk bag idea, but what about all I've read about the high speed thing killing enzymes or whatever? It seems I've read it's not just heat but the speed and friction itself that can cause damage. I know the slow masticating twin gear thing with the green star is one of the reasons they claim it's better.
Any method of juicing is still better than eating burgers...
I have been making milkshakes with my own home made almond or hazelnut milk, vanilla, banana and cinnamon. I'm dying to try yours with the cacao, mesquite and chai, etc. mmmm..... since i've tried fresh raw nut milks, I can never drink the boxed stuff again. :( I wish it was cheaper to make. Relatively easy, but expensive. Tomorrow I'm going to try it with brazil nuts.- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,568
This is a reply to # 1,504,720
I guess there might be some truth that a few of the enzymes are lost when juicing with a blender ... however, from how it makes me feel, I think it's a small price to pay ... and I don't think that many of the enzymes are lost (prob a bit of marketing hype from the juicer sellers)
I gave up regular juicing because I found it so tedious .. but now with juicing using the blendtec, I am drinking LOADS of juice. This is juicing made easy for the lazy person :-) Even when I'm in a rush, I seem to have time to make juice this way.
To strain green juice, I normally use 2 nut bags - one on top of the other - because the pulp is so fine, and I want it to be really smooth.
I like green smoothies, (kale and mango yum!) but they are too filling for me to have enough ... I like a lot of liquids, so I make a lot of green juice.
This mornings green juice was amazing!!! Beetroot, sunflower sprouts, parsley, cilantro and kale. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got 3 x 10 oz glasses out of this (so in reality, because I added some water, I really only get 2 glasses)
How many people in the world do you think get a blood transfusion like this every day? Less than 1% Even the health advocates on CZ are primarily not drinking raw, living juices - and this, I do believe, is the building block of good health, made easy.
Food is medicine. Fresh green juices are intensive, easily absorbed medicine. Add to the green juices some extra umph, like Schulze superfood, vita mineral green, fulvic minerals, Barleymax, seeweed/kelp etc ... and that is support for every cell in the body.
My body loves me - haha :-)
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... power juicer
14 y
32,619
This is a reply to # 1,504,887
Hi,
Frankly i will say both if you can : Blender and a Juicer. I tried to do a juice festing, i wold like to do it during 92 days as it supposed to be, but i stop to do it after 10 days. Why? Because at this period of time i used a blender, but a basic one, not something enough powerful which ability to preserve enzime potential - no just one where you need to blend more and more to be able to get a juice or a smoothie. And after 10 day it became difficult to continue in this way : too much time to prepare, need to cut everything...But i have to say that it was also a decision to stop it's not completely becasue of my blender.
After one week i saw a guy who used a juice fountain - waow - i say waow because it was so easy to prepare crazy fun juice, i mean fruit and green juice - that i would like the same...In an other way i discovered in the same period that i could get a good blender and use nut milk bag to separe fibers and it's also an easy way to make good juice or smoothie.
Then i was impressed by the fountain juice, but because i like green juice - and particulary juice with banana as celery-bananas-spinach, i prefer a good blender...But because i don't want to make this choice, i have plan to take both - a fountain or a stainless steel juicer and a blender.
In both everything can be preserved, like enzyme - and for me it's more easy to do a milk nuts with a blender...instead if we need to do it in 2/3 times to maintain a cool temperature...
as you talk about lazy juice, you can try this one : master clean - just citrus juice, cayenne peper and raw honey...no more than 1/10 tbs cayenne peper for 5/6tbs citrus and honey...and a quarter of water - easy to prepare...
;)-
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... power juicer
14 y
32,619
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,568
- Re: Maya is tht name of blender. Ble... tomato
15 y
33,243
This is a reply to # 1,502,896yself a high speed Blendtec blender (3 HP but blends at 2HP) - and now use that to make all my juices. It is incredibly fast, and so easy to clean. I sold my juicers and have never looked back!
All I do is put everything I want as a juice into the 1.5 litre blender container, add around 1/4 water (I always drank diluted juice anyway) and then blend on high for 30 seconds or so. I don't cut anything up - it's unnecesary. After that, I put everything through a nut milk bag (nylon mesh cloth or cheese cloth will do) - it's like milking a cow :-)
The juice is PERFECT! A high speed blender like this will not warm/cook the juice, it remains perfectly cold.
A Blendtec or Vitamix will make wheatgrass or barley grass juicing a doddle. (I don't think you'll get good grass juice out of lower powered blenders though, but you could try and see.) Try adding a lemon to the grass - makes it actually taste good :-)- Re: Maya is tht name of blender. Ble... Invincible
15 y
33,346
This is a reply to # 1,504,730
HeyTomato
The brand is "Blendtec"
I bought mine from a UK supplier - there aren't many selling them in the UK right now. But there are loads of sellers for the blendtec in the US. Here is the US Blendtec website: http://blendtec.com/ But do search around for better prices. There are lots of different blendtecs ... bear in mind the greater horsepower, the quicker the blend.
Cheaper than the Vitamix I think ... but I'm not here promoting Blendtec .. just the use of a blender for juicing and easier cleaning. So Blendtec or Vitamix is cool!
Check both brands out thouroughly, they are pricey, but last.
- [Message Subject Hidden by a Forum Moderator] pizzacrazy
15 y
32,899
- Re: Maya is tht name of blender. Ble... Invincible
15 y
33,346
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Hidden Username
15 y
33,287
This is a reply to # 1,502,896I've had a 3hp high speed blender for years and honestly, I hardly use it. I like it for fruit smoothies but eventually got sick of those and found that I just rather EAT the raw fruit. It's good for the morning fruit smoothies as quick meals and being able to throw/hide fruit in it I normally wouldn't eat.. like banannas. Cheap and full of nutrients but I despise them regardless of how ripe they are.. but I like them mixed with frozen strawberries.
There are also some liquid and powdered supplements I take..pretty easy to take when they're hidden in fruit.
I tried to make carrot juice with it once. Threw in some carrots and let them soak in water so they would blend better..which they did. But it was so thick and pulpy it was nasty. And watering it down didn't help because the taste got all messed up compared to fresh carrot juice.
I know a lot of people are into the "Green Smoothie" thing because of whatshisname who came out with the book. I tried a few of those recipes and gagged.
I don't like "juice" made out of a blender. When I want "Juice", I don't want foam and pulp and I also do not like my juices watered down so it's just not for me.
Plus, I'm into juice fasting. I don't believe in fasting with blended juices due to the fiber starting the digestive process.
My GreenStar gets used more.- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... grassman
15 y
33,194
This is a reply to # 1,504,792I love my greenstar as well have you seen the new greenstar elite?There are some vids at youtube done by rawfoods which is the guy from discount juicers.They also have a vid of the new vert mastication juicer which I ordered and should receive it monday.Juicing rocks.
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,417
This is a reply to # 1,504,863
The greenstar was my fav juicer .. but I am working on doing more for less right now.
So, using the blender to make juice is my version of juicing Zen style :-)
What with teenagers, dogs and work, sprouting, gardening .......
- Re: Wu Wei in food prep. grassman
15 y
33,215
This is a reply to # 1,504,897The blender is a great tool for effortless feeding of the body and soul.This gives more time for being in the moment and at peace with all things.Blend on and be well.
- Re: Wu Wei - Effortless action - exa... Invincible 15 y 33,300
- Re: Wu Wei in food prep. grassman
15 y
33,215
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,417
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Invincible
15 y
33,439
This is a reply to # 1,504,792
Hey Randomness, I was suggesting straining the blended juice through a nut milk bag (fine mesh) - no, I don't like the pulp either.
If you have the time and patience, then yes, sure juicing with a juicer is the way to go.
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... grassman
15 y
33,194
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... ciscokid
15 y
33,278
This is a reply to # 1,502,896We have a Vitamix, and LOVE it. Had it for 14 years I believe. It does exactly as you say... no muss, no fuss, blends anything down to a juice in seconds. Clean up is a snap. Use it just about every day.
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Lee5
14 y
33,000
This is a reply to # 1,502,896
Juicing with a blender is probably a better way to go as the enzymes are still beneficial, and most importantly, it helps keep you from quitting because it's easier. It's kind of like exercise, if you're routine takes too long or is too difficult you just give up after a while. It's better to stick with something for the long haul and any fruit and vegetable juice is way better than pizza and burgers.
A lot of people quit because the masticating or twin-gear juicers get them bogged down. The best centrifugal juicers for smooth juice and easy clean-up are those made by Breville. This consumer site www.best-juicer-ratings.com rates them all 4 stars or higher by many users. Unfortunately they're very expensive except for the Juice Fountain Compact, which can be gotten from Amazon for under $100.
I'd either get a Breville centrifugal-type, or go with the blender for a long-term commitment to juicing.
- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Healthparanoid14
13 y
30,520
This is a reply to # 1,585,410If you were to use a blender wouldnt you get more pulp? And do you always remove the skin of the fruit or do you just blend it all up? I have a champion juicer, it works great, but I should try other options too! Love to hear everyones advice on here, its very inspiring!:)
- differences between juicing with hig... knowledge seeker
11 y
24,542
This is a reply to # 1,846,374
hi
I want to throw something out there. I must disagree with some of you.
I am going to break this into 3 posts.
The ist (this one) discusses the hows of partaking in juices and also healing and repair versus digestion, and some benefits of juicing and blender juices/smoothies as well as oxidation.
The 2nd post discusses juicer made juicers superiority when it comes to making nonorganic organic
The 3rd post speaks of the increasing benefits of higher and higher percentages of raw vs cooked foods and assimilation which is pretty shocking to me.
There is a difference in juices made in a juicer versus a blender and both types are health producing.
These strained juices made in a high speed blender like a vitamix would be better considered as green smoothies and smoothies as despite straining some pulp does get in the product.
Where juicers made in a juicer can be superior is for healing and repair as it is crucial that when uses juices to heal the body one takes them with no pulp or food on an empty stomach.
When you do this, it is assimilated within 5 or 10 minutes and all the vital elements like enzymes, nutrients, phytonutrients, atoms, molecules etc go to healing and repair.
When any fiber/bit of pulp is left in the juice than much of the vital elements go to digestion leaving a lot less for healing and repair.
This is why Dr Norman Walker who is called the father of the modern juice movement and who invented the first juicer (the top of the line Norwalk) said in his book fruit and vegetable juicing (I am going to put a link in this forum next on where to download his book free) that it does not matter if one eats the best raw foods, if they don't include fresh (pulpless) juices healing will be greatly slowed.
One should consume all juices made in a juicer within 20 minutes. chew the juice and do not refrigerate but make fresh each time as it breaks down quickly.
Victoria Boutenko (rawfamily.com) showed in one of her book the difference between a green smoothie and a green juice in breaking down and it was definitely noticeable.
A green smoothie can also be very health giving. Victoria Boutenko did a study of a town where all the people were told to make no changes to their diet or routine other than adding a quart of green smoothies a day. Her and her family made the green smoothies each day for the 100 or so people in the study and drove 200 miles to bring it to their participants.
At the end of the one month study ALL participants reported various health benefits such as losing weight, more energy, better thinking-and concentration, better elimination etc and all said they would definitely want to continue taking the green smoothies on their own and being motivated from the experiments to make more healthy changes to their diet and lifestyle.
I have heard before that the high speed of the vitamix can oxidize the food so though I ten to make smoothies in it and strain them daily and use it a lot (I love my vitamix) I also try not to neglect the juicer.
- Superiority of the juicer when using... knowledge seeker
11 y
24,367
This is a reply to # 2,038,374Another benefit to using a juicer over a blendtex or vitamix is as follows:
(and it is amazing)
One can use even heavily sprayed produce and as long as none of the fiver is consumed, the juice is organic.
When a plant is sprayed with herbicides, pesticides etc, all of the toxins are concentrated in the fibers.
When the juicer triturates (pulverizes/smashes)the produce to be juiced. it breaks open the fibers separating them completely from the clean, organic juice inside.
The juice repels the pesticides and other toxins as oil to water. the pulp is still full of toxins but the juice is fresh organic clean juice as long as one does not consume the pulp with it. And since organic herbs are 7 to 10 times higher in healing pytochemicals (that prevent and cure disease) it is most likely that that organic juice is too so this ups the nutrition of the juice made from nonorganic produce up about 10 times as not matter how much you strain the juice made in a blender through a nut or mylk bag, it is already contained once the produce is slammed with the blades.
Thus it would make sense if one's budget for produce does not include all organic can be purchased, one could use the organic produce when making smoothies (or strained juices made in high speed blender and use the nonorganic produce to make the organic juice. You could either save the pulp to use later in recipes like soups, salads, etc or throw away or compost.
This assuring that one gets the benefits of the juicer of making nonorganic as organic and in having it go also exclusively to healing and repair and not digestion as it would if the tiniest amount of pulp or fiber or food was present with it when much of it goes then to digestion leaving not a lot left over for healing.
But we also see many benefits come from smoothies and that made in the vitamix.-
Raw food/juice and assimilation/ab... knowledge seeker
11 y
24,728
This is a reply to # 2,038,376
One also needs to realize that the one raw foods one eats percentage wise the more nutrients one absorbs.
Victoria Boutenko ever the researcher and thinker, posted a chart she thinks approximates how much of the nutrients you eat are digested.
Here is what she pretty much said
% of raw food % cooked food % assimilation
the first number is the amount of raw food (first example 5% raw 95% cooked (2nd number) followed by the amount of nutrients assimilated by the body at a low .03%
5% (raw) 95% (cooked) .03% assimilated
10% 90 .06
25 75 .1
50 50 .3
75 25 1.0
99 1 3
100 0 30
If Jim age 40-50 eats very little raw food
he is always hungry cause he is not getting enough nutrients
he has a big belly because he tries to fill the hunger in his body
he has a weak back cause of big belly and is always tired
he consumes 5% raw food. if one buys a hamburger or sandwiches they have 5 % raw cause tomato and lettuces makes up that 5%
at this point Jim is assimilating .03% of the nutrition in the food
he then gets very very sick and goes to health food store and learns he might feel better on a vegetarian diet he adds a lot of fresh food to his diet and cuts out the meat.
He is now eating 25% raw and 75% cooked foods. His assimilation increased three times to .1%or 1/10th percent.
He feels better and has a little more energy. He starts hanging out with new vegetarian friends and starts going to potlucks with them and increases raw to 50%.
He is now assimilating .3% (3/10th %) which is a lot as it is 10 times more than he initially was eating. he notices a difference and starts to feel better.
He starts going to weekly raw potlucks and increasing his raw food to 75% and decreases cooked foods to 25% and now is assimilating 1% so he';s now getting 30 times more nutrients than he first was.
He finally pushes himself to go 100% raw and within a few weeks he is extremely healthy with old diseases leaving as he now is assimilating 30% of his food.
He now looks better, younger, healthier and starts reading a lot of books o nutrition and raw foods. He even starts teaching a raw food class and goes to 99% raw.
He is now looking 10 years younger. He's social, lots of friends and loved by many. He is assimilated 30% of his food nutrients which is 100 times more than when he was 25% raw and about 300 times when he first started out.
Juicing and smoothies are flooding your body with raw food so this is presumably decreasing the amount of cooked foods one eats and this amounts for much of the health benefits of juice in a blender while the juicer made juicer also does the same but adds a lot more going to healing and repair as well.
(credit--this scenario on Jim above is paraphrased from Boutenko book-green for life)
That said Maya and others gave some excellent recipes, ideas and input..I certainly love my vitamix and had it almost 20 years.
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Raw food/juice and assimilation/ab... knowledge seeker
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- Superiority of the juicer when using... knowledge seeker
11 y
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- differences between juicing with hig... knowledge seeker
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- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... Healthparanoid14
13 y
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- Re: Juicing (and more) with a blende... wuzwad
15 y
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