A good trick for saving summer herbs for future use

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Jun 23rd 2008 @ 6:02PM

Last weekend, my friend Angie handed me two plastic bags that were bursting with fresh herbs from her garden. This Saturday, after lunch at my cousin Amy's, she led me outside with scissors and a bag and asked that I "please take all the basil you can carry!" I am currently awash in an embarrassment of fresh herbs.

Last night, as I was rearranging the fridge to make room for the remains of the chicken I had roasted for dinner, I came across these multiple bags of herbs, seemingly undiminished despite active use and thought to myself that I better find a way to preserve them soon or I was going to have to add them to the composter (I now have a indoor composter in my living room, more on that later).

As I was reading through my feed reader this afternoon, I came across this tip on The Kitchn and realized that it was the answer to my herbal abundance. Emma recommends chopping herbs and then freezing them into cubes in an ice tray. Each well gets half filled chopped herbs and then is topped off with stock, wine or water. When they're frozen, she pops them out of the tray and stores them in a plastic zippered bag for future use. Much like how people are always recommending freezing stock into ice cube trays, only with more of verdant kick. I'm looking forward to saving some of the thyme Angie gave me for the fall.

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Filed Under: On the Blogs
Tags: featured, freezing, fresh herbs, FreshHerbs, preserving, summer, summer bounty, SummerBounty, The kitchn, TheKitchn

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-23-2008 @10:05PM Lzbeth said... Hot damn, what a fantastic idea. I am SO doing this next batch of herbs. It's always so sad to see my lovely bunches of herbs do to smush before I can use them up. Thank you thank you thank you, I wish I'd thought of this myself.
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6-24-2008 @7:22AM Lin said... I clean the herb, put them in heavy plastic bags and freeze. When frozen, quickly and thoroughly knead, smash & squish the frozen herb into flakes, then I put in glass jars in the freezer, works like a charm and you can just put a spoon in and take what you need. I am still using up last yrs basil and it still has good flavor!
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6-28-2008 @5:35PM Candi said... Looks like frozen Vegimite.

Probably tastes great when you cook with it, though.

I will definitely try it, once I move out of this apartment!
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