Juicing (and more) with a blender instead of a juicer

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