How To Use Your Juicer

6 years ago
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by Chloe Zimmer

Fruit and vegetable juices have been a hot health trend for quite some time. It’s no wonder the last few years have seen a surge in the number of juice bars. Sipping on liquid veggies and fruits at these joints every day is a pricey affair. But here’s some great news: it’s less expensive and fairly simple to replicate those delicious beverages at home with a dedicated juicing machine.

Having a juicer at home allows you to quickly and conveniently consume large amounts of fruit and vegetables at once. And what’s more, homemade juice floods your body with minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants without the added sugars and chemicals that store-bought sugars tend to have.

To help you take your first steps in juicing at home successfully, here’s a comprehensive beginner’s guide to using a juicer.

The Ingredients

There are many different juicer models available that can extract juice from a variety of fruits and vegetables. It’s important to use the highest quality produce available to help you make healthy and vibrant juice. Ripe fruits and vegetables have a higher nutrient content and taste better than their unripe counterparts. Local produce that’s currently in season will have less environmental impact than the imported varieties.

Some of the fruits that are excellent for juicing include:

  • Mangoes
  • Kiwis
  • Pomegranates
  • Strawberries
  • Plums
  • Peaches
  • Apricots
  • Papayas
  • Apples
  • Grapes
  • Oranges
  • Pears
  • Lemons
  • Limes
  • Cherries
  • Grapefruit
  • Blueberries
  • Cantaloupe
  • Watermelon
  • Honeydew melon

Bananas and avocados are creamy fruits that don’t have a lot of juice. They usually clog juicers. Therefore, they’re better suited to blenders than juicers. You also won’t harvest enough juice from the meat of the coconut. You’ll be better off using coconut water or coconut milk when juicing, which can both be purchased at grocery stores.

Vegetables that make excellent juicing candidates include:

  • Spinach
  • Carrots
  • Celery
  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Kale
  • Beets
  • Radishes
  • Pepper
  • Parsnips
  • Turnip
  • Asparagus

Dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale offer a healthy dose of vitamins A and C as well as calcium. However, people who are prone to developing kidney stones shouldn’t run them through their juicers. That’s because these vegetables contain many oxalates that can cause kidney stones. Broccoli is incredibly high in vitamin C. However, it can be hard to digest, causing cramping, bloating, or gas. It’s better to avoid juicing it, particularly if you have irritable bowel syndrome. Similar cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and cauliflower can have the same effect as broccoli.

You can incorporate ginger, rosemary, basil, fresh mint, dill, lemon balm, or other herbs into your juicing ingredients to add a fresh flavor as well as nutritional benefits. Cinnamon and honey are also good flavor additions. However, if you want to add honey to your recipe to enhance its flavor, just use a touch of it for a little additional sweetness. Wheat-grass is also a popular addition in the juicing world. However, care should be taken with it because its texture can clog many conventional juicers.

Preparation

A juicer works by separating the juice from the flesh and pulp of fruits and vegetables. You can make your juice by following a recipe book or experimenting with different combinations of ingredients. It’s best to juice with fresh produce because frozen veggies and fruits tend not to juice properly. Besides your chosen produce and juicer, you’ll also need to work with a kitchen knife, cutting board, bowl, spoon, water, and some glasses or pitchers. Once you’ve gathered all the necessary juicing equipment, follow these steps:

  1. Juicing can be notoriously messy, so be sure to set up the work-space appropriately to keep the counter and floor clean. Lay an absorbent paper on the part of the counter where the juicer is to be set up. Newspapers also do a good job, especially if the juicing process is to be carried out outdoors on a bench or picnic table.
  2. Wash the ingredients gently but thoroughly. The fruits and vegetables may have been grown using pesticides, so it’s critical to wash them with clean water to get rid of any residue as well as dirt and bacteria. Use your hands to rub soft fruits and vegetables. Rinse any delicate berries. For harder produce, use a vegetable brush to scrub them. Once you’re done with cleaning, pat the clean produce dry with a towel.
  3. Next, you’ll need to remove thick skins and pits. The juicer will separate the juice from the thin skins, stems, cores, and other parts of fruits and vegetables that you’d normally never eat. However, some fruits and veggies have thick seeds, pits, and skins that you’ll need to remove yourself. For example, pineapples, melons, mangoes, papaya, and citrus fruits have thick skins. Peaches, cherries, nectarines, plums, and mangoes have thick pits that you’ll need to remove before you start juicing. If you want to juice nuts and seeds, you’ll also have to remove their shells.
  4. Cut both large and medium fruits and vegetables into smaller pieces to make them more manageable for the juicer. Chop large produce such as cabbage, watermelon, and pineapple into 2-inch cubes. Cut medium ones such as beets, tomatoes, and apples into quarters. You can juice the smaller and skinny fruits and vegetables whole. These include berries, kiwis, celery, carrots, radishes, and asparagus. Get rid of any bad spots from the produce before juicing.
  5. The final preparation step is assembling the juicer. Juicers consist of multiple components. The process of assembling most juicers involves the following activities: 
    • Position the juicing bowl in the central part of the unit to catch your produce and then separate the pulp and juice.
    • fit the auger in the juicing screen.
    • place the screen in the holder.
    • insert the assembled components into the juicing basket.
    • close the juicer lid.
    • position a pitcher or cup under the spout to collect the extracted juice.

Manufacturers will give additional instructions on how to put a particular juicer model together, so make sure you read them carefully.

The Juicing Process

Once you’ve assembled your juicer, you’re ready to start juicing your ingredients.

  1. Plug the appliance in and turn it on.
  2. Feed a handful of the prepared produce into the juicer’s feed chute.
  3. Use the pusher to guide the produce through the juicing screen gently. Avoid pushing too hard because that can break the fruit or vegetable open, especially if it has a thin skin, and make it much harder to juice. Working slowly also helps you get as much juice as possible from the fruit or vegetable.
  4. Remove the food pusher and feed another handful of the same produce.
  5. When you’re done juicing the first type of produce, go on to the next produce. Keep in mind that juicers usually have distinct settings for soft, medium, and hard ingredients. Therefore, adjust your juicer’s speed setting to suit the particular ingredient you’re juicing.
  6. After juicing all the ingredients, remove the pitcher or cup containing the extracted beverage and stir it well to mix the different juices. If you want your drink completely pulp-free, you can pour it through a fine wire strainer into an empty pitcher. That will strain any large pieces of pulp and seeds from the drink.

You can choose to pour the beverage into a glass and enjoy it as it is, chill it for several hours before taking it, or even refrigerate it for consumption within a couple of days.

While fresh juice is delicious enough when drank as it is straight out the juicer, you could also make sorbets or ice cubes with it, popsicles for your kids, or marinades and soups — both cold sweet soups to enjoy on the hot summer days and warm savory soups for the long winter months.

Cleanup after Use

The fruit and vegetable residue that’s left behind on the juicer after you’re done juicing can be easily contaminated with mold growth. Unfortunately, the microbial proliferation that a dirty juicing machine can harbor may find its way into your drink. But that’s only half the story.

Poor cleaning or lack of cleaning can damage your juicer. Limescale or dried juice residue can accumulate on the juicing screen’s fine mesh. As that builds up, it blocks the holes in the juicing screen. As a result, there’ll be fewer holes for the extracted juice to flow through. The pressure that builds up as you juice can make the screen crack. In severe cases, it can cause the juicing chamber to crack or even make the motor burn out due to overload.

The simple solution to these potential issues is to clean your juicer properly soonest possible after use. This will prevent sugars and pulps from drying onto critical parts. For proper cleaning, you’ll need to dismantle the different parts and rinse them under running water. Use a toothbrush to remove remnants from the strainer.

If you juice citrus fruits, your juicer may have an oily feeling. You can take care of that using a mild detergent solution. Just make sure you rinse the parts well. Occasionally, you may have to soak the screen in a solution. The user manual should shed more light on the exact cleaning solution you should use.

Now that you have a clear idea of how to juice, it’s high time you made a juicer part of your regular healthy eating routine. It will extract essential enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and other health-building elements straight from fresh, raw fruit and vegetables, providing your body with a wealth of goodness. Just remember to be kind to the appliance by taking it apart and cleaning it after each use, and it will provide years of faithful operation.

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