NOTE: I received the La Parfait “Super” 2 Liter glass jar from the Glass is Life campaign. Opinions about glass jars and juicing and whatnot are my own. Obviously.

Do you ever buy pure fruit or vegetable juices? Juicing is great for me, personally, because it helps me get more vegetable vitamins than I get from diet alone, while reducing the bulky fiber that can be difficult for my body to process with my history of digestive issues. I don’t own a juicer, but I DO own a Vitamix. One of the reasons that I purchased the Vitamix is because it is powerful enough to liquify things completely. Juicing with a Vitamix is easy; you just need the nut milk bag to remove the pulp.

Of course, you can leave the pulp in and have great whole food juices (called “blending”, not actually “juicing”), but your body will need to process the fiber, as it would with a smoothie. My friend ecokaren just posted a great breakout of the differences between juices versus blending, I highly recommend reading it to find out which direction you’d like to go. I actually do both juices and blending at different times. Also, more information on the right way to juice.

But if you want to know how to juice with a Vitamix, here is how I do it.

First, you need cheesecloth or a nut milk bag (affiliate link). I used cheesecloth at first, but now I have graduated to the nut milk bag, because it has a string around the top that cinches it onto my jar, allowing the juice to drip through slowly over a period of time, rather than having to manually press the juice out in batches as I did with the cheesecloth.

You also need a good, tall jar. I like the La Parfait “Super” 2 Liter Jar (affiliate link), which I got from Glass Is Life. I like that it has a sealing lid that I can clamp down over the top of the nut milk bag, like this:

It’s pretty easy — you can use any juicing recipe on Pinterest (follow my Vitamix board for ones I’ve tried or would like to try).

Step 1

Put the ingredients into your Vitamix. If it’s a recipe made for a juicer, you might need to add a cup of water or ice depending on how many juicy fruits or veggies are in your juice, so that they can circulate freely in the Vitamix.

Step 2

Blend until the liquid splashes around in the Vitamix.

Step 3

Secure the nut milk bag over your tall jar. If you forget to make it secure, it will fall right through and the pulp will get everywhere! I speak from experience.

Step 4

Pour the blended mixture into the nut milk bag, a little at a time. I like to use a spatula to scrap the sides of the nut milk bag.

Sometimes I help it out a little by squeezing…

Step 5

Remove the pulp! It will look like this:

I actually feed our to our chickens, but you can compost it or even try this Minestrone Soup Recipe by Mindful Momma.

Last, enjoy your juice!

It might seem like a few extra steps, but I’ve found it only takes about 15 minutes. To me, it’s worth saving the money and the space in my kitchen that a juicer would take up.