Herbal Ice Cubes

Submitted by - Carla -

"Freezing is a simple and excellent way to preserve fresh culinary herbs. Packing in ice cube trays makes it easy to always have fresh herbs on hand, adding fresh herb flavor to soups, sauces, and drinks. Some people prefer to freeze in a good quality olive oil, I prefer the boiling water method, which is listed in this recipe here today. You can freeze herbs individually or in combinations of other herbs."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 10mins
• Ingredients: 2
• Yields: 1 tray

ingredients

• herbs, of choice (basil, chives, cilantro, fennel, lovage, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme, et)
• boiling water

directions

1. Mince herb (s) of choice.
2. Pack minced herb (s) into an ice cube tray, each 3/4 full.
3. Fill with boiling water, (this will blanch the herbs before freezing and will help them retain their flavor and color).
4. Once the herbal ice cubes are frozen, you can pop them out of their tray and into freezer bags for storage.
5. Use as needed.

Reviews

[karen]

A friend of mine has been telling me to freeze herbs forever, but I was never inspired to do it until I saw your pictures. I just put my first batch in the freezer, and it was SO easy. I started about 3 cups of water boiling as I started mincing (I made three ice cube trays). I quickly packed the herbs into a tablespoon measuring spoon before transferring them to the ice cubes trays. This will let me use one cube per tablespoon, and I'll know exactly how many to take out of the freezer. Then I used a half cup dry measuring cup to scoop water out of the pot, so no mess and no water all over the counter. I'll never throw away wilty fresh herbs again.

 

[draperdeb]

Fantastic idea! Just tried the basil that I froze last summer, and it was amazing. I followed Karen67's tip to measure out the herbs before freezing, thereby eliminating guesswork while utilizing. Thanks, ladies!

 

[Mustang Sally 54269]

I've been growing & harvesting my own herbs for a few years. I've read it's better to blanch you herbs, however, until I saw your recipe I didn't realize how easy it is to do. I used a herb mincer & bar-size ice cube trays (those tiny ice cubes). I used a wine cork to pack down herbs, poured on the water & froze... vola! I like how green the herbs stay & they're easier to pop into my cooking. Thanks so much for sharing, now I can't wait for spring to start planting.

 

[Tamaretta]

I made these about a month ago, but waited to review until I actually tried it in some recipes. I froze chives and basil and in both recipes the flavors tasted almost fresh picked. MUCH MUCH better than dried! Also I didn't have any ice trays, so I used silicone/flexible mini muffin pan for freezing. Thanks for posting!

 

[SusieQusie]

Wonderful solution to my over zealous planting of basil! By trial and error, I found it best to have the water already boiling as I quickly minced & stuffed the trays otherwise the basil darkened. My best batches are still fairly bright green after 1 month in the freezer. Can't wait to try this with other herbs that don't overwinter here in Texas. Thanks for posting this winner!