3 Ways to Store Fresh Basil
30 Minutes
Easy
Basil. It’s my favourite. I love the smell, the flavour it gives & how incredibly easy it is to grow and store.
I plant Genovese Basil, because it’s the bomb for sauces and pesto’s!
Using it fresh - This is the easiest & least time consuming way. Dampen a couple of sheets of paper towel and lay them flat in a Ziploc bag. Lay your basil leaves on that paper towel, take out all the air in the bag and seal it shut. They will keep fresh like this in your fridge for up to two weeks. How do I know that? Because the photo above is ‘fresh’ basil that I stored 2 weeks ago. If you find that your paper towel is getting dried out, add a drop or two of water to dampen it again.
Freezing Fresh Basil - The second easiest and least time consuming way to store basil, is to freeze it. This actually take less steps than keeping it fresh. Once it’s washed & dried throw it in a freezer bag, let out all the air and find a place for it in your freezer. When it freezes it becomes very brittle and breaks incredibly easy. You can either crush it all in the bag and leave as is, or, leave the leaves full & crush them as you need them. Take note though that although it freezes easily it also thaws easily. The warmth from your hand will thaw it within seconds. My suggestion, keep two frozen bags. One crushed & one whole, this gives you more options to work with.
Dried Basil - This step takes a bit of time and you will need a dehydrator for it.
I take a little more time drying my leaves after washing them if I know they are going to be dehydrated. I have a Salton dehydrator that has 5 racks and different temperature settings and is so quiet. Although it suggests using the lowest temperature setting for drying herbs, I crank it to the highest because I don’t have the patience to wait all day.
Lay your leaves out closely to one another, you can overlap a bit as they will shrink as they dry. As the leaves dry you can condense them down onto one or more trays and add some more basil as you go. Smaller leaves take less time, larger leaves take more time. You will know that your leaves are dried once they have shrunk to half their size, and are a darker muted green and brittle to touch.
Once all my basil has dried, I put them in a clean mason jar and crush them down – usually with my mojito muddler!
Don't forget to head over to the blog for some tips on growing and cutting your crop!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 comments
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So good to know!
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My daughter rinsed hers and then freezes them in ice trays with water when she makes soup, chili or anything she drops in a cube.
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