The weather is finally starting to cool here after a long hot summer. We enjoy making lots of soups, casseroles, and pasta dishes in cooler weather. Our basil plant is thriving so we have frozen some of the fresh basil for use in our winter cooking.
Basil is an easy herb to freeze. Pick a couple of handfuls of leaves.
Remove the stems and any brown leaves. Wash the leaves and dry them in a salad spinner or with paper towels.
Place the leaves in the food processor. Process to roughly shred the leaves. Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt to coat the leaves. (This prevents the basil from turning black in the freezer).
Spoon into small containers or ice cube trays to freeze. Label and pop into the freezer until you need some basil.
Next we are going to harvest some of our Mint.
I’ve tried freezing basil leaves plain, in a bag. Sometimes it works… sometimes it doesn’t. I will have to give your method a try… say in September (lol). But why the salt?
I am going to send your post to my sister, she is going big with her garden this year and I know she will love the information on how to freeze her herbs.
Thank you for this tip …. definitely will try it.
We freeze ours every year, and each winter I’m so thankful I did! It always brightens up a dreary day dish reminding me that summer will eventually arrive again 🙂
How lucky you are for being able to grow basil! I don’t think we have warm enough summers for that here.
As I am a horticulturist by trade and also love pottering about my herb & veggie garden, it’s so nice to read your blog encouraging & hopefully inspiring people to garden … when not sewing of course 🙂
Thank you for this…I wqsn’t really sure how to freeze the basil!
Such a fabulous tip. Wishing you much happiness at Easter time.
This is a lovely tutorial, thank you! I live in the Middle East and we don’t grow basil. There is a variety but I don’t like it as much as the western basil. Anyway, you gave me the idea to buy the little imported and expensive pots and freezing them until I need them! It’s a project for the weekend! Oh, and we don’t always get the basil either!!
I took the basil leaves, washed them, laid them out on a cookie shhet, placed them.in the freezer for a couple hours. Removed from the pan and placed in a Ziploc bag. Returned to the freezer.
Must try this method next time. Love having basil on hand.