I own a citrus press and I use it more than almost anything else on the counter, which tells you where I land on juicing: the simple stuff, squeezed fresh, beats a complicated recipe nearly every time. These 23 DIY juice recipes are sorted that way. Some want a juicer and a bag of produce, like the beet, apple and ginger blends or a proper green juice with kale and celery. Plenty of them work in a blender with a strainer, which is how most people actually make juice at home. There are immunity juices mild enough for kids, a cucumber cooler for a hot afternoon, tropical blends that are basically a holiday in a glass, and one green juice written specifically for people who have never made one and are suspicious of the color.
1. Easy Homemade Cranberry Juice
Two ingredients and a pot: 12 ounces of fresh cranberries and six cups of purified water. Bring it to a boil, drop it to a simmer for about 15 minutes until the berries pop, then strain and chill. That is the whole thing, and it is worth doing because homemade cranberry juice is tart in a way the sweetened bottles never are, so you can sweeten it exactly as much as you want or not at all. It doubles cleanly if you want a pitcher for the week.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. Strawberry, Watermelon and Cucumber Juice
Three things that are mostly water, which is the whole idea. Eight to ten strawberries, a cup of cubed watermelon and a quarter of a peeled cucumber go through the juicer, and that is the entire ingredient list. The one instruction worth following is the last one: give it a full hour in the fridge before you pour it, because this tastes thin at room temperature and clean and bright straight out of the cold. Watermelon and cucumber are doing the volume, the strawberries are doing the color and the flavor, and it makes one tall glass, so double it if two of you want one.
Get the full tutorial at Living Chic Mom.
3. Glowing Skin Green Juice
Three ingredients and about five minutes: four large apples, six celery stalks and two kale leaves. Two leaves, not a bunch, which is exactly why this one is drinkable when most kale juices are not. Core the apples, de-stem the kale, cut the celery into shorter lengths so the juicer takes them without complaint, and drink it straight away. It makes about three cups, so there is a glass for somebody else or a second one for you.
Get the full tutorial at Happy Foods Tube.
4. Winter Vitamin Boosting Juice
Four large carrots, two celery stalks, one apple and a handful of flat leaf parsley, with a squeeze of lemon at the end if it needs lifting. Five minutes. Taste it before you add the lemon rather than after, because carrot and apple together are sweeter than you expect and a whole lemon can tip it sour. Cut the carrots and celery in half or thirds so they feed through without jamming the chute.
Get the full tutorial at Happy Foods Tube.
5. Apple Lemon Mint Fruit Cooler
Two and a half cups of cloudy apple juice, three tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 15 large mint leaves, blitzed for several minutes until the mint is very finely chopped. Then let it settle so the froth disappears before you pour, which is the step that makes it look like a drink rather than a smoothie. No juicer needed at all. It keeps in a screwcap jar in the fridge, and it serves four over crushed ice with a lemon slice.
Get the full tutorial at Little Sugar Snaps.
6. Watermelon Orange Ginger Turmeric Juice
No juicer required, which is why this one gets made. Squeeze 18 ounces of orange juice, roughly six oranges, then blend it with seven cups of cubed watermelon, a three inch knob of peeled ginger and around a teaspoon of ground turmeric. The ginger goes in whole, no grating. Pour the whole thing through a strainer and throw away the pulp and the ginger fibers, and you have four glasses of something that tastes like a juice bar charged you for it.
Get the full tutorial at My Sequined Life.
7. Apple Beet Juice
Two ingredients, and the writer behind it came to it while trying to settle a long stretch of digestive trouble, which is a more honest reason than most juice recipes give you. Apple is what makes raw beet palatable, so do not be tempted to cut it back on the first attempt. It tastes like the sweet, earthy end of a summer garden, and it is the juice I would hand somebody who has decided beets are not for them.
Get the full tutorial at Kitchen Frau.
8. Strawberry Watermelon Juice
Two cups of watermelon, two cups of frozen strawberries and the juice of one lemon, blended whole so nothing is thrown away. Frozen berries are doing double duty here, flavor and chill, which is why you do not need ice diluting it. A high powered blender handles it, and you may need the tamper to push the fruit down into the blades. Three servings, and the lemon is what stops it tasting like melted candy.
Get the full tutorial at Know Your Produce.
9. Beet Ginger Detox Juice
Two large raw beets, three or four Gala or Honeycrisp apples, a two inch piece of ginger, a fistful of parsley and the juice of a lemon, straight through the juicer and poured over ice. The apple variety is not incidental: Gala and Honeycrisp are sweet and juicy enough to balance two whole beets, where a Granny Smith would leave it tart and earthy at once. Peel the beets and the ginger. Makes two glasses.
Get the full tutorial at The Harvest Kitchen.
10. Super Purple Juice
Red cabbage is the surprise ingredient and the reason for the color, and it has a strong enough flavor that it needs managing rather than masking. Turnips and peeled cucumber add volume and nutrients without touching the purple, thawed frozen blueberries and apple bring the sweetness, and lime cuts the bitterness. The maker’s own rule is worth stealing: aim for roughly 80 percent vegetables to 20 percent fruit in any juice you build yourself.
Get the full tutorial at Nosh and Nourish.
11. Cucumber Mint Cooler
Not really a juice, and included because it is the best thing on this list to hand somebody on a hot afternoon. A cucumber goes through a mandolin into long thin ribbons, and the ribbons get curled inside the glass, which is the entire trick. Pack in ice and a few mint leaves, add a slice of lime and a squeeze of juice, then top with club soda, seltzer or plain water. Four glasses out of one cucumber and one lime.
Get the full tutorial at Roti n Rice.
12. Homemade Fresh Pineapple Juice
One medium pineapple, a cup of water, two tablespoons of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of black salt, blended and then strained through a fine mesh sieve. Press the pulp with the back of a spoon to get the last of it out. Skip the sugar entirely if the fruit is sweet, and do not skip the black salt, which sounds odd and is doing the same job a pinch of salt does in a fruit pie. Under 10 minutes, four servings.
Get the full tutorial at Whisk Affair.
13. Beet and Pineapple Juice
Four to five cups of chopped pineapple, one medium beet, a whole English cucumber and an inch and a half of ginger. The pineapple is the reason this works: it is acidic and sweet at once, so it handles raw beet better than apple does and you end up with a bright pink juice instead of an earthy red one. It runs through a juicer or a blender with a strainer, takes 10 minutes and makes three glasses. Drink it immediately.
Get the full tutorial at Evergreen Kitchen.
14. Favorite Green Juice
Six Pink Lady apples, a handful of wheatgrass, one lime and five stems of celery with the leaves left on, because the leaves have more flavor than the stalk. The best idea on that page is not the recipe, it is the rule behind it: juice matching colors together. Greens with greens, reds with reds. It sounds like decorating advice and it is actually why some homemade juices come out a convincing color and others come out olive.
Get the full tutorial at The Good Greeff.
15. Sweet Potato Fruit Juice
Raw sweet potato in a juice sounds like a dare and is genuinely good: it comes through mild and starchy sweet rather than vegetal. It goes in with pomegranate seeds, an apple, a carrot, an orange, a grapefruit, half a lemon and a cup of pineapple, which is a long list for three cups of juice, so save it for a morning you feel like cooking. Peel the sweet potato, the citrus and the grapefruit first.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Comfort Food.
16. Glowing Skin Juice
One beetroot, two oranges, two carrots, two red apples, a cucumber and a stick of celery, washed, chopped and put through the juicer. Straining it afterwards is optional and does improve the texture noticeably, so do it if you are serving this to anybody who is on the fence about juice. Four cups, which is a whole liter, so it is the one to make when more than one person wants a glass.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Vegan Blog.
17. Apple Cider Vinegar Detox Juice
A cup of cranberry juice, two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a cored Granny Smith, half a cup of frozen blueberries and half a cup of ice, all into the blender. This is a whole juice, meaning the pulp stays in, which is why it comes out thick and purple and keeps you full. Swap the cranberry for cran raspberry or cran apple if you want it sweeter. The vinegar is sharp, so start with less if you have never had it in a drink.
Get the full tutorial at Hamilton Beach.
18. Apple, Carrot, Celery and Kale Juice
Four small green apples, four large carrots, a whole bunch of kale at eight to 10 leaves and four large celery stalks. The order matters more than people think: kale first, then celery, then carrots, then apple, so the harder, wetter produce pushes the leaves through and you are not left with dry kale stuck in the chute. Fifteen minutes and two big glasses. Best drunk fresh.
Get the full tutorial at Loving It Vegan.
19. Immunity Boosting Juice
Three juices rather than one, all written for toddlers and kids: an orange, carrot, apple and ginger blend with optional turmeric, a green one built on broccoli stem, cucumber, kale, pear and lemon, and a tropical apple, beet, carrot and pineapple. The broccoli stem is the clever bit, since it is the part everybody throws away and it juices beautifully. Three servings each, five minutes, and elderberry syrup is optional.
Get the full tutorial at Baby Foode.
20. Beginner Green Juice
Three apples, four large celery stalks, a peeled orange, five handfuls of spinach, half a lemon with the rind on and half a thumb of ginger, for 32 ounces. Peel the orange and leave the lemon rind, which sounds backwards: orange skin is bitter enough to ruin the glass and lemon rind is not. The honest warning on that page is worth having too, which is that a centrifugal juicer will fling most of your spinach into the bin. Finish it in a blender instead.
Get the full tutorial at JuiceRecipes.com.
21. DIY Carrot Juice
One carrot, one banana, one apple and two glasses of water, blended for about five minutes of total effort and serving one or two. Because it is blended rather than juiced, you drink the pulp, which is the point: you get the fiber along with the beta carotene. Add maple syrup or honey if your carrots are not sweet, and swap in kiwi, melon or berries freely. A pure version is just one carrot and one glass of water.
Get the full tutorial at Recipe World.
22. Tropical Pineapple Orange Mango Juice
A quarter of a pineapple, two peeled and quartered oranges and half a red mango, straight through the juicer. That is a five minute job for one very good glass. Red mango rather than any mango is worth respecting, because the redder varieties are less fibrous and give you juice instead of sludge. Nothing green in it anywhere, which makes it the one to make when you want a juice that is purely a pleasure.
Get the full tutorial at Delightful Adventures.
23. Pina Colada Lime Cooler
Four cups of fresh pineapple, a quarter cup of cream of coconut, two tablespoons of fresh lime juice and two cups of ice, blended smooth. No alcohol, which means the kids get one too. Cream of coconut is not coconut milk and not coconut cream, it is the sweetened one in the small can by the cocktail mixers, and substituting the other two is the way this goes wrong. Four glasses, five minutes, lime slice on the rim.
Get the full tutorial at Mildly Meandering.
