Freezing Herbs

Freezing herbs preserves flavor and taste. Drying herbs, or preserving herbs in other ways, is a good way to use organic food advantages and organic food benefits in your cooking.

Freezing herbs is a great way of preserving herbs, especially when you have no way of drying herbs effectively. Or, if you don't have the time for drying herbs, freezing is fast. While drying herbs isn’t difficult, purchasing a dehydrator isn’t cheap. Herbs can be dried in the oven, but it can be difficult to achieve evenness. While dried herbs have a different proportion for use in cooking, frozen proportions remain the same, which makes using frozen organic herbs easy for cooks.

When you’re thinking of preserving herbs in any way, you want to gather them fresh. Make sure to get out before the hottest sun of the day so that the essential oils of the plant won’t be depleted. Those oils are FLAVOR.

Rinse your organic herbs to make sure they’re free of dirt. Pat dry. Now, put the herbs on a cookie tray. Make sure the leaves do not touch. Put some covering on the tray and put in the freezer. Once the herb is totally solid you can transfer it to an air-tight container and label accordingly (include the date frozen). Frozen herbs can retain their flavor for about 6 months if well wrapped.

If you prefer chopped organic herbs, you still need to rinse the fresh leaves and pat dry. Then chop up the herb to a usable size. Put these in an ice cube tray filling half way, then top with water. The wonderful thing about this method is you can 'pop out' what you need measurement wise any time and still get close to fresh taste. If you don’t want to give up your ice cube trays, just pop out the organic herb cubes, put them in a food storage bag (labeled) and then return them to the freezer.

This is a fantastic way to freeze herbs for marinade, frying, and grilling. Rather than using water (as in method 2) freeze different amount of organic herbs in extra virgin, organic olive oil. You can make 1 tbs or 2 tbs. quantities (both are great so you can adjust to your menu). As with the herbs in water, you need to freeze the cubes, pop them out, then label accordingly (including the measurements and date frozen). These oil and herb cubes add great flavor to your cooking; and are easy to use.

Once frozen, the defrosted version lasts for about a week in the refrigerator.

Frozen organic herbs can be fun to preserve and easy to use . For example, if you’re hosting a party where you’re serving mint julep, you can make ice cubes with one mint leaf each. It will look lovely and make your visual presentation shine.

There are herbs that are better to freeze than others. Just some of the most common cooking herbs that freeze well include:

• chives
• basil
• dill
• lemongrass
• mint leaves
• oregano
• parsley (chopped and in water or olive oil)
• sage (many varieties)
• savory
• thyme
• tarragon

One of the organic food advantages to growing your own organic herbs is that they grow in abundance! So what to do with all these herbs? Preserving herbs allows you to use the organic herbs throughout the fall and winter season.

Freezing herbs is a fantastic way to preserve their flavor so that your meals have that 'fresh picked' impact. You can freeze whole, freeze in water, or freeze in oil successfully. The only caution is to make sure you’re using freezer-safe containers.

Additional Reading

• Organic Herb Garden Plans

• Growing Herbs Indoors, Organically

• Organic Perennial Herbs

• How to Dry Herbs, Organically

• Organic Milk Thistle Herb

• Organic Holy Basil Herb

• Return from Freezing Herbs to Organic Food for Everyone Home Page