We have often mentioned that a juicer jar provided along with a mixer grinder is inefficient at extracting juice as the leftover pulp retains a lot of juice. A juicer mixer grinder has better efficiency. But, if you are someone who makes juice just occasionally, it may not be worth spending a lot on a juicer mixer grinder. Not to mention, the space it consumes!
For such people, the best bet is to use the mixer grinder jar to make juice. It takes more time compared to centrifugal juicers and also you have to manually strain the juice. Further, the juice of fibrous fruits and vegetables won’t be as smooth and fine as what you get in a juicer mixer grinder. But, it is an economical and space-saving option for those who make juice rarely.
To make the juice, use the large jar that comes along with the mixer grinder. With fruits like watermelon which has high water content, you needn’t add extra water for blending. But, with carrots, beetroot and other firm vegetables and fruits, you may have to add water so that it grinds to a finer consistency. After that, you need to pass it through a sieve so that the juice doesn’t have a grainy texture. Let us look at the step-by-step method to make juice using a mixer grinder. We have used carrot and beetroot here. But, you can follow the same process for other fruits and vegetables as well.
How To Make Juice In A Mixer Grinder?
Time needed: 30 minutes
To make the juice, we have used just 200 gm each of carrot and beetroot. We have made the juice in the large 1.5-litre wet grinding jar using a 750-watt mixer grinder. A 500-watt mixer grinder may have a tough time extracting the juice and such a heavy load may affect the durability of the appliance too.
- Clean The Vegetables/ Fruits
The first step is to clean the fruits/ vegetables thoroughly. Remove the top portion and wash it thoroughly in mildly salted water. Then rinse in running water to get rid of any residues.
- Prep the Fruits/ Vegetables
The next step is to chop the fruits/vegetables into 1-inch pieces. A few people recommend peeling off the outer layer of carrots and beetroot. But, if you have organically grown vegetables, you can leave the skin on the fruit and cut it into small chunks.
If you are using watermelon, orange or any fruits with seeds, deseed them while chopping. Watermelon and fruits with higher water content can be cut into larger chunks too. On the other hand, with fibrous vegetables like beetroot and carrot, you could grate them for easy juicing, especially if your mixer grinder is old. - Grind The Ingredients
Fill the ingredients to half the capacity of the jar or less, and pulse a few times so that the ingredients are ground uniformly. This reduces the chance of having large chunks of fruits and vegetables in the juice. You may have to use a spoon and push the chunks towards the blade a few times to grind it thoroughly.
- Add water
Next, add sufficient water so that the ingredients are completely immersed in liquid. Then, run the mixer grinder to thoroughly blend the ingredients to a fine consistency. If you wish, you can add sweeteners like sugar or jaggery.
If you are juicing fruits with high water content, pulse the grinder 10-15 times to make the juice. But, if you are juicing vegetables like carrot or beetroot, run it at maximum speed for a minute. - Strain the Mixture
Pass the blended mixture through a sieve or a muslin cloth to remove the fibrous content from the juice. This ensures that the juice does not have a grainy texture and is smooth to drink. We have found that muslin cloth is much easier than passing it through a sieve.
- Blend the pulp Again
If you are passing the pulp through a sieve, there may be more juice content left in it. So, add some water and run it in a mixer grinder once more. Strain the mixture. This helps you to extract the juice completely. At the end of the process, you should get the pulp similar to what you can see in the below image.
Other Tips For Making Juice In A Mixer Grinder
- Avoid running the mixer grinder/ blender for more than a minute while juicing as it may strain the unit and cause the overload protection switch to trip.
- For best results, chop the fruits and vegetables to a uniform size before blending.
- Add the leftover pulp to the batter for muffins or to curries or vegetable side dishes so that you don’t lose out on the fibre content.
- If possible, avoid storing fruits and vegetables for juicing in the refrigerator as it reduces the moisture content and makes the fruits less “juicy.”
- Clean the jar and lid immediately after juicing to avoid fruit pigments from staining the containers.
- If you are juicing in smaller quantities, use the 1-litre multi-purpose jar which comes with a plastic lid. This is because the plastic lid is less prone to staining compared to polycarbonate.
- If you are juicing watermelon or grapes without de-seeding them, pulse several times so that the seeds do not get ground.