Discussion Board

I've read that freezing curry leaves is a good way to have them all the time. Normally we just let them dehydrate in a bag in the door of the fridge. Does anyone freeze them and how please?

I successfully froze basil leaves by blanching for a few seconds, quickly cooled in icy water, and then patted dry. The leaves curled up, but I took the time to unravel so they would dry flat. I placed on a paper towel lined baking sheet and froze. Then, the leaves stayed separate, and looked lovely on top of pizza. This was a lot of work and I only did it once.

An old Italian neighbor used to freeze parsley by getting a large quantity, washed and dried it in kitchen towels, then coarsely chopped and packed into freezer containers. When she wanted to use some for cooking, she simply scraped the tines of a fork over the surface to get what ever quantity she wanted. The key is to have the herb dried off before you chop/put in container. I have used this easy method on both parsley and cilantro.

A third method is to chop up the herb and put into ice cube trays. Pour water over the herbs and freeze. Then pop out the cubes into a zip bag. When you want the herb for cooking, just drop a cube into whatever you are cooking.

I just toss them in a zip top bag and throw them in the freezer, never had a problem using them after that.