Freeze Storing Annual Herbs – Basil
At the end of autumn we still had quite a lot of basil plants (Ocimum basilicum) that were starting to die, the leaves get brown spots on them, due to colder weather. It was a great herb that we used regularly throughout the summer and autumn in pasta sauces and as pesto. Once the plants are dying it was well worth pulling them all out and storing away the leaves and we have tried a variety of methods.
Basil makes a great pesto. We made quite a supply and kept some fresh in the fridge for a few weeks and we also stored some pesto directly in the freezer. Pesto recipe…
We also tried to dry the basil leaves by simply hanging the plants upside down until the leaves are crunchy. We then crushed them and filled a jar. We find that this technique while very easy does the basil leaves do loose quite a lot of the flavour strength in their leaves.
Freezing ice blocks of pureed basil.
Along with pesto you can freeze pureed basil. After cleaning the leaves we simply blended in a mixer and then filled ice block trays to make small and easy to use herb blocks that last for the next year in the freezer. Once the herb blocks are frozen you can take them out of the ice block tray and store them in a larger container in the freezer. It is easy to add a block or two to pasta sauce during the cooler months until you harvest fresh basil the next summer.
We have also tried freezing pureed blocks of other herbs such as garlic chives, coriander, dill and normal chives.
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