Cold-Pressed-Style Green Juice (No Juicer Needed)

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

A bright, genuinely refreshing green juice you can make with a blender and a strainer — no $400 juicer required. Cucumber and celery do the watery heavy lifting, green apple and lemon keep it crisp instead of grassy, and a knob of ginger gives it the clean bite you pay $12 a bottle for. Strained until it runs thin and pourable, with zero thickeners, it drinks like the real cold-pressed thing.

Ingredients

• 1 large English cucumber (about 12 oz), unpeeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 4 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into chunks (skin on)
• 4 cups packed baby spinach or stemmed lacinato kale
• 1 cup packed flat-leaf parsley leaves and tender stems
• 1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 cup cold filtered water, plus more as needed
• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

• 1-2 tsp honey or agave nectar, if your apples are tart
• 8 fresh mint leaves
• ice, for serving

Instructions

1. Chill everything first. Put the cucumber, celery, apples, and greens in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes if they aren't already cold — cold produce blends into a cleaner-tasting juice and you'll need less ice at the end.
2. Load the blender in order: 1 cup cold water first, then the cucumber, celery, apple, ginger, parsley, and finally the spinach or kale packed on top. Liquid on the bottom lets the blades catch immediately.
3. Blend on low for 15 seconds to break everything down, then increase to high and blend a full 60 to 90 seconds, until the mixture is a smooth, uniform, fully liquefied purée with no visible flecks of celery fiber. If the blender bogs down, add water 2 tablespoons at a time — no more than 1/4 cup extra.
4. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl and line it with a nut milk bag, a double layer of cheesecloth, or a clean thin dish towel. Pour in about a third of the purée.
5. Gather the cloth into a pouch and squeeze firmly from the top down, working the pulp toward the bottom, until the pulp inside feels dry and crumbly and no more liquid runs out — about 1 minute per batch. Scrape the spent pulp into a separate bowl and repeat with the remaining purée. You should end up with about 3 cups of thin, pourable juice.
6. Stir the lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt into the strained juice. Taste: it should be bright and lightly sweet, not grassy. If it tastes flat, add another squeeze of lemon; if it's too sharp, stir in 1 to 2 teaspoons honey or agave until it just balances.
7. For the cleanest texture, pass the juice one more time through the bare fine-mesh strainer to catch any foam or stray fiber. Chill for 20 minutes, or pour immediately over ice into two tall glasses. Slap the mint leaves between your palms and drop them in. Stir before every sip — natural separation is normal and means you didn't use a thickener.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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