This is the one drink on juicemixes.com that I cannot make in a juicer, and I would rather say that at the top than pretend otherwise. A banana does not juice. Push one through a machine and you get a clogged basket and a smear of puree, which is why every “banana juice” recipe you will find is really a blender job. I make this one anyway, because it is the best thing I know for the lull between lunch and a long walk. Two ripe bananas whizzed into fresh orange juice with a knuckle of ginger give a thick, cloudy, apricot-coloured glass that holds you for a couple of hours, and because nothing gets strained it keeps the fibre the rest of the site leaves in the pulp.
Why these ingredients work
Potassium is the honest reason this glass does anything. You lose potassium when you sweat, and your muscles and nerves use it to fire, so a drink carrying about 730 mg of it is useful either side of a long walk. Two oranges and two bananas also bring roughly 90 mg of vitamin C and, because nothing is strained, about 7 g of fibre, which makes this far more filling than the same volume of clear juice. The ginger earns its place as well, since it is one of the better-evidenced everyday ingredients for a queasy stomach, and the half lemon stops the banana reading as baby food.
FAQ
Can you juice a banana?
No, and it helps to know why. A banana is mostly soft fibre and water with very little free juice, so a juicer has nothing to press. The blades turn it to puree and the pulp clogs the basket, which is why machines that take everything from kale to beetroot still refuse a banana. Blend it instead. If you only own a juicer, juice the oranges, the ginger and the lemon first, then blend the bananas into that juice, which works perfectly well and just gives you a thinner drink with less fibre.
Is a banana and orange drink actually good before a walk?
It is a sensible one, as long as you are clear about what it is. A glass gives you about 730 mg of potassium and about 29 g of fruit sugar, which is fuel your muscles can use straight away, and the ginger helps if you get a queasy stomach on the move. What it will not do is fix tiredness that has a real cause. If you are flat most days, that is a conversation with your GP about sleep, iron and thyroid rather than another glass of fruit.
Who needs to be careful with this one?
Anyone who has been told to watch their potassium. Two bananas and two oranges is a genuinely potassium-rich drink, and if you have kidney disease, or you take an ACE inhibitor, an ARB or a potassium-sparing diuretic, high-potassium drinks are something to run past your GP or pharmacist rather than something to drink every day. It is also about 29 g of sugar a glass, so treat it as a before-a-walk or breakfast drink, not a low-calorie one. Greener bananas have less sugar than speckled ripe ones if you want to dial that down.
More energy recipes: see the full Energy collection.
Banana Juice for Energy: Orange and Ginger
Ingredients
For the juice
- 2 ripe bananas peeled (about 240 g)
- 2 large oranges peeled (about 300 g of flesh)
- 1 small piece fresh ginger about 10 g, peeled
- 1/2 unwaxed lemon juiced
Instructions
Blender method (use this one)
- Peel the bananas and the oranges. Pull the thick white pith off the oranges but keep as much of the soft flesh as you can.
- Put the bananas, the orange segments, the ginger and the juice of the half lemon into a blender with 100 ml of cold water.
- Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds until it is completely smooth and there are no lumps of banana left.
- Pour straight into two glasses. Do not strain it, the fibre is part of the point here.
- Drink it within about 15 minutes while it is cold and thick. It will separate if it stands, so give it a stir before you drink.
Juicer method (juice the oranges, blend the banana)
- Run the oranges, the ginger and the lemon through the juicer. A juicer will not take a banana, it clogs the basket and turns it to puree, so keep the bananas well away from the machine.
- Peel the bananas and blend them with the orange juice for 30 to 45 seconds until smooth.
- Pour into two glasses and drink straight away. This version is thinner and you lose most of the orange fibre, so it is the fallback rather than the first choice.