Preserving Fresh Herbs


As summer comes to a close we are all looking for ways on how we can preserve our wonderful summer gardens. When it comes to herbs luckily you can have them indoors and eat them fresh year round. At the beginning of the summer I had a few herbs indoors but once picked and used I failed to plant more, woopsie my bad....
If you purchase them at the grocery store during a great sale you may want to stock up a little! This week I picked up 2 bunches of green onions and 1 bunch of cilantro. For the cilantro I planned on using it in homemade salsa (recipe soon) and for the green onions I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I wanted them at .50 a bunch and I knew if nothing I could freeze them for and used them during a later time.
What? Freeze? Green onions & Cilantro?
I've been on a major freezer meal kick but I have been freezing cilantro and green onions for quite some time now. They work great in soups, salsas, potatoes, enchiladas, Mexican dishes and other food that wouldn't necessarily require them fresh, like baked potatoes. For salsa which i make often, the cilantro I think tastes the exact same as if you just had gotten it from the store or garden!
They both keep the green color nicely and they come out of the bag the same they went in. As you can see in the picture of the onions in my palm which I had froze previously and taken out to show you they are still nice and round. I wash, dry well then chop them up into the sizes I would use them. I also use a freezer zip loc and make sure ALL of the air is out! Air and water will cause them to brown. The longest I've had them stored in the freezer has been 1 month and it's still tasted great. I'm sure a bit longer would be fine too, we just eat it so quickly!!



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6 comments:

  1. What a great idea. Every year I waste the fresh herbs in my garden because I've never been successful at drying them. This year, the herbs didn't survive the hot summer, so I've been buying fresh herbs at the store. I'm sure you know that can get a bit expensive, and still it seems a good portion of those are wasted too. Now I'll know how to prolong the "life" of them for a while in the freezer. Great tip!

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  2. Aye, we do this every year. And never regret! An awesome addition for the winter food and a nice money saver.

    ___
    call Bangladesh

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  3. Thanks for the tips! I’d love for you to link this to Things I’ve Made Thursdays. I’m trying something new this week- We have two sections to the party- one for kids’ things and one for “Anything”!! I think this post would be an awesome addition to the “Anything Goes” party!

    Hope you’ll stop by on Thursday and link up!
    Melanie
    http://bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com/2011/09/things-ive-done-thursday-new.html

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  4. Thanks for linking up- love your post & gave you a Facebook shout out!! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bear-Rabbit-Bear-Craft-DIY-blog/147483145329051

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  5. great idea!! Thanks so much for linking up to Sassy Sites for our FFA party! Have a FABulous Friday!!

    XOXO!!
    Marni

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  6. what a great idea!
    Thanks so much for linking up to Tuesday Talent Show! I would love to have you stop by and link up again with more great projects!
    -Nikki
    http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/

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