Preserving Fresh Herbs

If you're anything like me, you love cooking with fresh herbs but you hate to see your money go down the drain if you don't use it all before it goes bad in the fridge.  So I am so proud of myself today for learning how to preserve these tasty herbs for use on a later date.  Today I preserved leftover Parsley, Mint and Rosemary.  I'm so excited to share with you how.  I feel like I learned a great secret today, although I learned this by searching the internet on how to freeze these herbs.  Here's how to do it:

For the Parsley, make sure you rinse the herbs.

I make bunches of parsley and chop the stems off towards the top of the bunch.

Chop parsley to desired size and measure out teaspoon sized portions.

Add a teaspoon to each compartment of an ice tray.  I know right now your jealous of my cool Ikea trays!  Cover with water until about half full.  Freeze until solid and then fill the rest of the way full with water.  This makes sure that floating herbs get completely covered so they will not turn brown on the edges.

When completely covered and frozen, remove from ice trays and place in a plastic bag and store in the freezer.  When needed just remove a cube of frozen parsley and mix into your meal.  

For Mint, first rinse leaves and remove any discolored leaves from the bunch.

I removed the leaves from the stems

Chop leaves and measure out teaspoon servings

Make ice cubes the same as the parsley, freeze and store in plastic bag in the freezer.  

For rosemary, this is a bit different because it is considered a "hard" herb.  All I did is remove the leaves from the stems and placed all the leaves in a ziplock bag and stored them in the freezer.

Remove from freezer when ready to use just as you would with fresh rosemary!