So you’re getting excited about juicing and now you have a new cold-pressed juicer sitting in your kitchen. You need some tips and instruction on using it so you’ll have great juicing results. Even experienced juice fans might need a few tips to get the most out of their juicer, so this isn’t just for the novices out there.

Most people picture a blender of some kind when they think of a juicer, so it can be a bit puzzling when they see their cold-pressed model looking quite different. For one thing, there usually isn’t a big glass canister on the top. Just an intake hopper at the top, and an outlet for the juice to come out the side or front.

Using Your Juicer

Unlike a blender, or even some centrifugal juicers, you don’t just stuff handfuls of ingredients in the machine and let it whirl in one big batch. Your fruit and veggies are fed through the hopper, one piece or big chunk at a time. Long veggies like carrots fit nicely and you can usually just drop them in. Wider foods like pineapple, cabbage or beets will need a rough chopping first. Celery stalks also fit down the chute but you should give them a chop too, or the long strings can sometimes get tangled inside the juicer.

So you just drop your food items down the hopper, and use the plunger to get them down into the mechanism of the machine. Don’t shove too hard, just a light pressure to keep things moving. Once the first chunk or piece is done, toss in the next one.

Since you’ll be juicing one piece of food at a time, you get each resulting juice one at a time. It’s no big deal really. Just give your glass of final juice a bit of a stir to get all the ingredients blended. Or simply alternate your ingredients as you run them through the juicer.

Foods to Avoid

Though a good cold-pressed juicer can tackle a lot of fruits and vegetables, there are a few things you really should try to avoid when making up new blends. Even though they can be super-healthy, some foods just don’t have enough liquid in them to properly juice. You can gum up your machine and end up with a mess. Things like:

• Avocado
• Banana
• Squash
• Nuts or seeds
• Rhubarb

Mangos and peaches are tricky ones. If they are just that right level of ripeness, they may give up some juice. Otherwise, it will be a bust. Don’t despair though. Any of these things can be pureed in a blender and added to juices for thick smoothies. You just can’t actually juice them. On the other hand, hard veggies like broccoli and cauliflower are juiceable, which usually comes as a surprise.

Once you’re done juicing for the day, you’ll want to give your juicer a cleaning. It’s not hard, but you’ll find all the details on that in another one of our blogs.

Remember, be sure to checkout the Healthy Juicer!