Making Apple Juice with a Ninja Blender
Angela | September 26, 2011I had no idea when I wrote a post about how to make juice with a Ninja Blender that it would be my most popular post on this blog.
But, it is.
The irony, of course, is I stated upfront that I am not really a juice person. Though, I should note, I am changing my mind on this after reading this month’s Virtual Book Club book called “Crazy Sexy Diet.”
Last week, a commenter asked specifically about making apple juice, as he has a boatload of apples he needs to juice. So, I set out to juice some apples and report back.
Topline: My initial reaction stands on this – if you juice a lot, or you have a large volume of items to juice, best to just get a juicer. But, if you juice every so often, or perhaps need juice for a recipe and don’t want a lot, the Ninja will deliver. Just keep in mind – it is a blender, not a juicer/extractor. This means you will pretty much always have to strain whatever juice you’re making to take out the pulp. Juicers do this step for you.
Making Apple Juice with a Ninja Blender
Step 1: Get your apples ready – blend no more than 5-6 at a time.
I had four apples on hand, so that’s what we’re working with here.
Step 2: Peel apples
Step 3: Core apples – no need to chop aside from just getting them off the core. An apple corer would help here.
Step 4: Pay your assistant in apple peels. Your assistant may be like mine, and demand payment before the job is done. Your assistant also may walk around with his or her tongue out all the time. It’s so hard to find good help these days…
Step 5: Add apples to blender along with a small amount of water. I added 1/3 cup water for four apples and that seemed about right.
Step 6: Blend, stopping every so often to push down any bits that aren’t getting blended. I ended up having to push down the extra bits twice. I blended on 3 for a total of about one minute to get everything all mixed up as good as possible. Here is the result:
Step 7: Strain. This is where it would be great to have a sieve. In fact, I do not recommend doing this without a sieve. My sieve is in Seattle. My blender is in Bend. You can see the issue here! So, I had to do a poor man’s sieve of placing two-ply of paper towels in a colander. The objective here, of course, is to drain the juice and end up with dry pulp. You will need to push down with a spatula to do this. Alternatively, you could use a mesh bag that is common for straining nut milks, or even a paint straining bag (that has never been used for painting, of course).
Step 8: Drink! I ended up with more than a cup of juice, but I tasted some and gave some to 2Chili to taste before taking this photo. The juice was up to the top of this measuring cup before our little taste test. The leftover pulp (in the bowl) was about 1/2 cup worth.
The verdict: Well, it tastes like apple juice. But, more of a “country style” apple juice because it isn’t all refined and sugary like store bought. It was really quite good, I thought. Worth the effort? Maybe, maybe not – that’s up to you to decide…
Thanks for this recipe. If you had a Vitamix..you would not anything left over to put thru the seive -but they are very expensive. I’m just getting a Ninja and looking for some good
suggestions. The man on QVC shows some good ideas and about using frozen fruit and
milk or yogurt and it really looked great..like sherbet. Have us seen that demonstration?
If not there’s a nice video on item No. K33917. You may enjoy checking it out. http://www.qvc.com
and put in that number. You’ll see the good video.
Thanks for the information and loved the other article as well. I have been using (cleaned) panty hose for straining and that has been working great. How did the juice and pulp get to be so dark? In the picture before it was a yellowish color and then with the juice and pulp separated its quite the reddish color.
Hi Thomas,
That is a great point about the color — it was simply bad lighting. The true color was really probably somewhere in the middle… Great eye!
Thanks Angela,
I have since made Apple juice and the oxidation of apples causes the darkening. That’s why when you serve cut apples you squirt lemon juice on them to prevent the brown color. Anyways, I made apple juice similar to yours and the longer I waited the darker the color. Nothing better than fresh juice!
Great point, Thomas, thanks for pointing out the oxidation factor!
Im quite disappointed in my ninja because I was led to believe by the infamertials that you can turn everything into juice. They do it on tv with other veggies and fruits. I had a Jack LaLane juicer and it juiced very well but left alot of the fruits or veggies that you were juiceing and was terrible to clean. The ninja is good for many other uses but not a good juicer as they advertise!
I agree and am VERY disappointed that I have to go through the peel and strain step, even before I open the box. The infomercial and person on the phone deceived. I’m glad I haven’t sold my other juicer yet.
I had the same problem as you, Edward! I got the Ninja because I was looking for a juicer and it claimed it juiced…and I thought…Oh? Maybe? Maybe I could have a blender AND a juicer in one instead of getting an expensive juicer?
Anyway the Ninja is great after all!
But definitely not a great juicer. A real juicer takes as much juice as possible out of the fruit or veggie and leaves the pulp w/o the need to add water which dilutes the nutrients you’re trying to extract from the fruit/veggie juice.
I got a cheap Black & Decker one to try ($30!) and it works great so far! Except you have to cut up all the fruits & veggies very small… it seems better for personal/occasional use (it’s plastic.) But I decided I like it and we could use it so am getting a better Breville one and it’s actually cheaper than I thought. Mostly for organic carrots since we can get them pretty cheap and I found a way to use the carrot pulp.
Mel, I’m curious – what are you doing with the carrot pulp?!
I made raw coconut carrot “cookies” with them the day I posted that comment, with nuts … this morning I put it in my little ones oatmeal… I wouldn’t eat it like that but they loved it
I also am using some of it in veggie broth. If I have too much at once I just freeze it until I’m ready to make the veggie broth. 
One bit of information was left out…what type of apple did you use?
It will make a BIG difference in the taste of the end product!
Hi Lonnie,
Great point. It has been a while so I don’t remember the exact apple, but I pretty much exclusively buy Fuji or Braeburn. I’m betting it was Braeburn based on the photos. I would use a sweet apple, not a bitter one for this project. (Would avoid Granny Smiths…!)
Angela
Has anyone made fruit leather? You take the pulp, pat it out flat on a piece of wax paper, and let it dry on the kitchen counter.
Roll it up in the wax paper for storage. Tear off pieces and eat it as a snack.
My father used several different fruits . . . usually peaches or apples.
Before totally desiccated, he’d put some on a peanut butter sandwich.
Great idea, Dan! If you try it, please let us know how it works out. Do you not need to add any sweetener?
Yes. Sweetener is definitely called for with most fruits. I’ll post my recipe after I try it one more time.
Excellent, thanks Dan!
Well, I made “Pear Leather” yesterday.
I stopped the process after six hours. the outside edge was getting brown and crispy and the center was still tacky.
I started with two Anjou pears, peeled and put them through my Ninja Kitchen System 1500 with two teaspoons of sugar. The result was runny, and there was no way to separate the pulp from the juice. A strainer helped some, but not much.
I cut down a gallon baggie, put it in a cookie sheet, poured in the mixture, and put it in the oven with the door ajar, The lowest my oven will go is 170° F.
The baggie curled and acted like it was about to melt, but it never did.
This was a fun project. The pear leather is delicious. But next time I’ll pour the pulp into a bowl and eat it with a spoon.
The pulp would have been sweet enough without the two teaspoons of sugar, but I like things sweet.
Interesting, Dan. Do you think it would work better in a dehydrator? It sounds delicious!
It’s really very good. And it’s simple enough to make that kids could do it (with adult supervision). But when you’re cooking for one, it’s too much trouble what with peeling, coring, blending, and then six hours in the oven.
Oh yeah. It was delicious and I’ve finished it already.
Maybe a dehydrator would do a better job.
And a juicer would leave drier pulp.
Haha! Good for you for making something good and then eating it all up.
As I think more about this I think you could get away without peeling it. Just core it, blend it, and dehydrate. You would get the added fiber from the peel and it would save a step…
Thanks for reporting back, Dan. I enjoyed reading about your project! We don’t have a kitchen right now due to an in-progress full gut remodel, but I will be trying this straight away when we get one again.
I didn’t consider leaving the peel. Do you think it would make the pulp more ‘grainy’?
I don’t think it will make it grainier. I often leave the peel when I make applesauce and it really has no impact on the texture. It’s worth a shot!