Food shredder

Having mistakenly bought a blender when in fact I needed a juicer or something to completely shred foodstuffs like kale/celery/apple etc without having to add liquid - does anybody recommend using a masticating juicer and if so, which brand? Thanks.

Let us know if this works out for you, sounds like an easy way to add veg to the diet.

Years ago I used a Champion juicer that I really enjoyed - although clean-up was a lot of work.

But I'd recommend avoiding juicers. Most nutrition of fruit/veg is in the fiber. When you juice, you remove the fiber, so you are drinking pure fructose without the natural regulation. After I learned this, I started liquefying greens with water in the blender.

Argh! I've just got rid of the blender! 

...just getting over the shock of losing the blender. Thanks for the good tip Wheezer.

wheezer said:

....I started liquefying greens with water in the blender.

Ahhh, what a good idea.  I have a Vita Mix blender, which is awesome but I was wondering how to do more than smoothies with it.  I know you can do soup, etc pretty easily but more than that, hmmm.  I buy spinach but really prefer it quite shredded up.  I'll have to try this in the Vita Mix.

BTW, the Vita Mix is totally awesome.  You can generally find them used on Craigslist for sub $400.

Ah that sucks LateStarter!

jl5555: I could almost liquefy spinach in my $100 600W Sunbeam (it was at least drinkable), so the Vitamix should have no problem with it.

2-3 bananas, 3-4oz spinach, optional cinnamon and add water to desired consistency makes a great, simple hit of greens. The banana really brings out the fat in the spinach for a full, delicious flavor.

Looking forward to the day you can pick up a Vitamix for sub-$400 here in Oz! Just as well I like sitting down with a huge bowl of salad and a fork.

that sounds nasty. i prefer cramming handfuls of spinach or other leafy vegetables into my mouth. quick and painless with no clean up process

I used to put spinach in my smoothies. It blended fine and I couldn't even taste it. It did make a nice green color. My blender has got to be at least two decades old, too. I tried kale but it was too bitter for me.

I've seen a hand blender work well, though those don't let you multitask.

LateStarter@46 said:

Argh! I've just got rid of the blender! 

 

 

 

...just getting over the shock of losing the blender. Thanks for the good tip Wheezer.

After juicing you could try adding the leftover pulp back into the juice, dunno how liquid it will all be. I read of some people using the leftover pulp for cooking, like making veggie burgers

I used to make the pulp into a stew or soup. Was pretty nice

Good ideas above, thank you. I went and bought a 'proper' blender and now have the fun of creating smoothies for each day. My first couple of attempts with kale and apples have been awful!

VitaMix are awesome.  We've had one for about 7 years now, still going strong.  Spinach, kale, swiss chard, all blend up nicely.  My wife has a killer recipe for a lime smoothie with spinach.  I'll have to post it on here.  Or maybe the nutrition section I guess.