Can You Juice That? 20 Unusual Fruits and Vegetables Tested

Can you juice grapes, mango, peaches, tomatoes, herbs, or a banana? Some of them beautifully, some of them badly, and a few not at all.

The rule: firm, wet produce juices well; soft, starchy, or fibrous produce clogs the machine and belongs in a blender. Below are twenty fruits and vegetables people ask about, each with a verdict, a yield, and what to do with it instead if the juicer isn’t the answer.

The notes are practical, based on how each one behaves in a centrifugal or slow juicer, not a spec sheet. Skim to the one you’re holding, or read the whole list before your next farmers’ market trip.

The Quick Verdict Table

The Ones That Juice Well

Grapes. Excellent yield, very high sugar. A cup of grapes sweetens a whole green juice; a bunch on its own is dessert. Skins and seeds go through fine and add tannin and color. Red grapes over green for antioxidants.

Honeydew and cantaloupe. Almost as watery as watermelon, sweet, and cheap in season. Peel them; the rind is bitter. Melon-mint is a summer classic. Drink it the same day; melon juice goes off fast.

Tomatoes. The best savory juice you can make. Ripe tomatoes, a couple of celery stalks, salt, pepper, a dash of hot sauce. Nothing sweet about it, and at about 40 calories a glass it’s a good option if sweet juices leave you hungry.

English cucumbers. Thin-skinned, seedless, no wax, no peeling. The single most useful thing in juicing, which is why they’re the base of half the beginner recipes.

Kiwi. Tart, bright, and it juices well peeled or unpeeled if you scrub the fuzz. Two kiwis add a lot of vitamin C to a cucumber-spinach juice. Slightly gritty from the seeds; strain if you mind.

Kumquats. Juice them whole, skin on. The skin is the sweet part and the flesh is sour, so together they balance. A handful in an orange or carrot juice is a nice change.

Kohlrabi. Peel the tough skin and it juices like a mild, sweet broccoli stem. High yield, low sugar, and a good cabbage-family option if kale is too much.

Quince. Rock hard and astringent raw, but a quarter of one in an apple juice adds a floral note. Cut it small; it’s harder than a beet.

Firm peaches and nectarines. Pit them first. Firm fruit juices well and tastes like summer; soft, ripe fruit turns to pulp and clogs. If it’s ripe enough to eat with your hands, blend it instead.

The Ones That Juice Poorly

Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. They juice, technically, but a pint of berries gives a few tablespoons and costs $4. Blend them into a smoothie where you keep everything. The exception is a few strawberries into a big cucumber juice for color and flavor.

Herbs. Mint, basil, parsley, and cilantro are flavor, not volume. A handful wrapped around a cucumber chunk goes through fine and transforms a juice. A bunch on its own gives you a teaspoon of intense green liquid and a clogged screen.

Eggplant. It juices, and the juice is bitter and faintly soapy. There’s no reason to. Roast it instead.

Elderberries. Raw elderberries, and the leaves and stems, contain compounds that cause nausea and worse. Never juice them raw. Cooked elderberry syrup is a different, traditional product; if you want it, follow a tested recipe that cooks the berries.

The Ones to Blend Instead

Banana, mango, papaya, avocado. No juice to speak of; they’re soft, starchy, or fatty and turn to paste that clogs the auger or coats the basket. They’re exactly what a smoothie wants. The line between the two machines is drawn in juicing vs. blending.

A workaround: make a cucumber-pineapple juice, then blend it with half a banana or a few chunks of mango. Best of both.

Two with Special Rules

Grapefruit juices beautifully, peeled, and is lower in sugar than orange. It also interferes with how the body clears many common medications, including several statins and blood pressure drugs. If you take anything daily, ask your pharmacist before it becomes a habit.

Pomegranate juices well if you juice only the seeds (arils). The white pith is intensely bitter and will ruin the glass. Cut the fruit in half, hold it cut-side down over a bowl, and whack the back with a wooden spoon; the seeds fall out.

Then juice them. High in sugar and antioxidants; a small glass.

Recipes for the Unusual Ones

• Grape Cucumber Mint: 1 cup red grapes, 1 cucumber, a handful of mint. Sweet without being syrupy.
• Honeydew Lime: 3 cups honeydew, 1 lime, a few basil leaves.
• Peach Ginger Cucumber: 2 firm peaches (pitted), 1 cucumber, a thumb of ginger.
• Kiwi Spinach Cucumber: 2 kiwis, 2 handfuls spinach, 1 cucumber. Green and tart.
• Kohlrabi Apple Lemon: 1 kohlrabi (peeled), 1 green apple, half a lemon. Mild, sweet, cabbage-family.
• Savory Tomato: 3 tomatoes, 2 celery stalks, half a red pepper, salt, pepper, hot sauce.

All of these follow the vegetable-first ratio; the sugar reasoning is in juicing vegetables vs. fruits, and the general prep rules, including what to peel, are in how to prep produce for juicing.

Unusual Produce Juicing FAQ

Your This-Week Plan

• Pick one “yes” from the table you’ve never juiced. Kohlrabi and kumquats are the fun ones.
• Make the Savory Tomato if you’re tired of sweet juice. It changes what you think juice is.
• Move the bananas and mangoes to the blender permanently.
• Keep cucumber as the base for everything, and the beginner’s guide open for the routine.

This article is for general education and isn’t medical or nutrition advice. Never juice raw elderberries, rhubarb leaves, or fruit pits. Grapefruit interacts with many medications; check with your pharmacist. Sugar and yield figures are approximate. Fresh juice is unpasteurized; drink it promptly, and follow your juicer’s manual for what it can safely process.