How to Make Fresh-Squeezed Juice with Fruits and Veggies (Kid Approved)

My youngest son isn’t the biggest orange fan, but that all changes if he can turn them into fresh-squeezed juice.

“I want to make juice,” he declares, dragging his stool over to the counter and pulling the juicer toward him. He calls out the ingredients, asking us to lay them out on the cutting board so that he can feed the juicer himself.

The Fresh-Squeezed Juice of the Day

“Orange!” he says, and, “That other orange!”—this week’s “other orange” is a blood orange—“And carrots and blueberries!”

We peel the oranges and lay out the segments. He delights in the bright red flesh of the blood orange, and I have to stop him from putting the pieces he licks (“Delicious!”) into the juicer. Grabbing the cup with both hands, he takes his first sip, pauses to think, and then gives us a smile and a thumbs up.

“Mmmm, it’s good!” he says.

Like my son, I love making orange juice this time of year because we can mix so many different kinds of citrus into it. We add blood oranges for a little bit of tartness and color, Cara Caras for their sweetness and pink juice, or tangerines for their complex flavor. There are all kinds of ways to shake it up.

The Easy Way to Make Fruit and Vegetable Juice

If you have a juicer on hand, you can turn pretty much any fruits and vegetables into healthy fresh-squeezed juice. Here’s an easy step-by-step method that my family likes to use. Just don’t forget to rinse your fruits and vegetables in cool running water before you toss them in the juicer.

1. Pick Your Fruit Foundations

Grab at least three or four flavorful fruits to form the foundation of your juice, like apples, oranges, pears, grapes, mangoes, pineapples, or passion fruits, and add them to the juicer.

2. Choose a Hydrating Base

3. Bring the Zing

4. Add Your Greens, Spices, and Extras (Optional)

5. Taste Your Creation

A Final Word on Fresh-Squeezed Juice

As much as my family loves juice, I have to say that it’s always healthiest to eat your fruit whole (you lose some of the fiber and its health benefits when you remove the skin or juice the fruit). But juicing is a fun way to have fruit in a different form—and to sneak in those carrots and cucumbers.