How To Do A Juice Fast, Without Spending $150 On A Juicer

I mentioned a little while ago, that I watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, and it piqued my interest in doing a juice fast.  Like I do when I have a new (possibly harebrained) scheme in mind, I immediately hopped on amazon and started shopping for supplies.  BF then wandered into my office, saw me looking at juicers and said with extreme trepidation and disgust, "Oh god, you're not going to buy a juicer, are you?"

He then proceeded to rant about how much he hates juicers and the people who own them, and explained why they're really not that great at all.  "But how am I going to do a juice fast without a juicer?" I asked.

"All you have to do is replicate what the juicer does using a blender or something," he shrugged.  "Plus, you hate kitchen gadgets that only do one thing."

And there was the crux of the argument.  I hate, to use Alton Brown parlance, 'uni-taskers.'  You'll recall my recent post: Stuff You Don't Need, where I railed against quesedilla makers and the like (because they're ridiculous), so why would I then buy a gadget, a very expensive gadget, that really only gives me one result. At the very least, I owe it to myself to see if I even like this damn juice before I spend any money on gadgetry.

In my kitchen, I presently already own:

• A stick blender purchased with points from my Amazon.com visa (free)
• A fine mesh sieve purchased to help me rinse quinoa (approx $5)
• A plastic pitcher that I fill with iced coffee in the summer, and other cool beverages (everyone has a pitcher, I assume) (approx $.99)
• A mixing bowl purchased at Home Goods (approx $7 for a set of three)

What I know about a juicer from asking people who use them:

• A juicer pulverizes what you put into it (vegetables, fruits, etc)
• A juicer uses centrifugal force to separate the pulp from the juice

Therefore, I assumed that I could pulverize the ingredients with my stick blender and separate the juice from the pulp using my fine mesh sieve.

This is getting a little long, so I'll detail the process (with pictures!) after the jump.


The recipe I used was the Mean Green Juice slightly modified.  I used kale, cucumber, lemon, ginger and a green apple.  I left out the celery because I hate celery more than I hate any other food in the world--seriously.  Even if I couldn't taste it once it was all blended up, I'd still be able to taste that evil, evil vegetable.  Down with celery!  It's mostly water anyway.

First step, take a bunch of kale--a whole bunch, even though that looks like way too much kale, and tear it up into smallish pieces.  Put it in a large mixing bowl with two cups of water.  Blend until you can't seen anymore leafy bits.

Then peel, dice and add cucumber and the juice of half a lemon--or a whole lemon if you want it really tart.

Mix that up.  Then core and chop one apple and add those pieces slowly along with another three cups of water.

Mix the whole thing until smooth-ish.  Should look like a frothy green mess.

Let it sit for a while--like five minutes.  Doing that will help the pulp rise to the top, which makes it easier to strain.  Strain out the juice into a pitcher or whatever else you have that's similar.

Periodically, you'll have to scoop out the pulp from the sieve and throw it away.

That's a little gross, but who cares!

And there you have it--bright green breakfast.  This should make enough green juice for one day, but I guess that depends on how much you drink.

Fast starts today and lasts 7-10 days.  Wish me luck!