Can You Juice Kale Stems?

Everyone loves to juice kale, but can you juice kale stems or just the leaves?

Honestly, it’s a question that deserves more than a yes or no answer. So I’m going to go over some of the details and determine why you can or can’t.

Also, we will touch upon some of the more detailed questions such as which juicer is best for juicing kale stems (if you want to juice them).

This will be a brief article, but it will cover more than a simple yes or no answer. Which, honestly, just isn’t sufficient.

 

Ok, what’s the deal? Can you Juice Kale Stems?

Yes. You can. There is nothing toxic in kale stems that make them unsuitable to juice. Kale stems are simply another part of the kale plant.

Kale stems have more fiber than the leaves, so you won’t get as much juice from them as you do from the kale leaves. But you will get juice!

There is absolutely no reason not to juice kale stems as long as you want to and have a good juicer.

 

Can All Juicers Juice Kale Stems?

Certainly all juicers can juice kale stems. But that doesn’t mean that all juicers should juice kale stems.

With the exception of citrus juicers and press juicers, your basic electrical juicers are all capable of juicing kale stems.

But I would caution against using a blade model to juice kale stems or kale for that matter.

Because kale is a leafy green, you should only be using juicers for leaf greens.

The added issues with kale stems is that they are more fibrous than the leaves. This means that you will have a tougher time juicing the kale stems in normal juicers as compared to an auger juicer.

Basically, I’d suggest not juicing kale stems if you own a centrifugal juicer, but if you have an auger juicer, then yes go ahead and juice kale stems.

 

Is There Any Reason To Juice Kale Stems?

Why bother juicing kale stems? Can you get anything out of it?

Yes, as I mentioned above, there is juice in kale stems.

If you’re buying organic kale, that can get expensive if you throw out the stems. So I always wash my kale and juice the kale stems with the leaves attached.

If you’re juicing something like curly kale, then you are not going to have to deal with much of an issue. That’s because there is not much of a stem with curly kale.

But if you’re juicing something like red leaf kale or dinokale which you might find sold as Tuscan kale, then yeah you’re going to have a decent kale stem to juice.

It’s a waste of money to simply throw away the kale stems. And not only that, it’s also easier to juice kale stems than eat them.

I’ve spent time cooking kale in all sorts of methods, and kale stems are actually one of the more difficult things to cook right. You can steam them, but they are still very tough to eat. And if you boil them, you’re killing a lot of the nutrients.  And roasting them works, but you’re going to have to roast them for a long time. So, just juice them!

Does Kale Stem Juice Taste Any Different?

No. Remember, the only structural difference between the kale stem and the leaf is that the stem has a lot more fiber. So, you will get less juice from a kale stem than you do from a kale leaf, but it doesn’t matter. You paid for the kale, why throw it away?

 

What To Juice With Your Kale Stems

My suggestions is to not save up kale stems and juice them all at once. Simply mix the kale stems into the regular kale and juice it all together.

But, as to what you should add to your kale stems juice I would suggest lemon or apple. You want something that has a pleasant flavor that can overpower the kale.

 

Further Reading

Thanks for reading.

If you’re interested in how juicing effects the nutrients and fiber in the things you juice, start with these two articles I wrote a while ago.

Does Juicing Destroy Fiber

Does Juicing Destroy Nutrients