Green Smoothie Tests the Ninja Pro Blender - Can it Juice?

I LOVE my Ninja Pro Blender - it puts the Magic Bullet to shame. All my AB team friends who have seen my Ninja in action, inevitably put their Bullet in a garage sale and go out and get the Ninja. We have had ours since September 2010 and it has been used just about every weekday morning to blend up a breakfast protein shake/smoothie for myself, and sometimes my husband as well. We have certainly gotten our $65 investment from it - and now I see the system for $50 regularly on sale.
If you are looking for a great blender for smoothies I highly recommend this system - it turns ice cubes into fine ice in seconds. I always use either ice cubes or frozen fruit in my breakfast smoothies and my meal is made in about 2 minutes. I wanted and needed quick and convenient...and since teaming up the Ninja pro with my AB pea/rice/cranberry based protein shake it has been a win win!
I've been eyeing juicers - but I don't want to waste my grocery bill by tossing pulp into compost. As well, the greater part of the nutrients is within the pulp. I don't have time to bake with pulp (all I can think of to do with it is to make muffins). I have watched the infomercials for the Ninja kitchen system - which makes juice with no pulp - however, a friend bought this and said it is definitely thick, not juice-like to drink. He ended up taking it back.
Curious, I decided to see if the Ninja could handle parsley or cilantro - grass like smoothie ingredients, both excellent for liver detoxification. As I read reviews on juicers it seems there are masticating kind, which do great with ingredients such as wheat grass - but fail at root vegetables such as beets; and then there are the heavy wattage juicers...great with making juice from anything other than grass like ingredients.

The Ninja blender is powerful, and perhaps just as good as the Ninja kitchen system as far as juicing goes - and I thought I would test it out. Today it was tested out on a green smoothie, all vegetables are washed beforehand, even if organic:

I tossed in...

-2 cups detox green tea (cooled)

-5" seedless cucumber, with peels on

-1 celery stalk (cut into 2-3" chunks)

-1 c. steamed broccoli (left from dinner)

-Handful fresh cilantro

- 2 to 3 ice cubes

I pulse blended the Ninja - if you do decide on a Ninja blender you should always pulse the motor for 15 second spurts rather than run it constantly for several minutes. When I first read reviews on this blender several said their motor burned out soon after getting it - everyone else reported pulsing is key, which I have always done. After about 1.5 minutes I checked for stringy celery or cilantro stalks, and finding none, pulsed a few more times for good measure.

I then poured my pretty green drink into a glass. It tasted super fresh, like spring! Very good, although I would end up chewing a bit on what I surmise was celery bits. After a little bit, I decided I did not want to chew my smoothie, and opted to pour it into a saucepan on the stove, and heated it up to use as soup instead. Much better!! I can handle chewing soup! (LOL)

I am not giving up on experimenting with the Ninja. I know of the many benefits to celery, but will try to make a green smoothie again without, OR simply blend it for longer. What I had set to find out was if the Ninja Pro Blender could tackle herb greens such as cilantro and it indeed could do that, and I suspect it can handle wheatgrass just fine as well.

This soup is FULL of anti-oxidants and I recommend warming it up on lower heat - and not bringing to a boil to preserve the nutrients as much as possible. If it were summer time I would find this soup as a refreshing COLD SOUP and envision a side of fresh tomato salad.

To your health,

Rita S.