Preserving Herbs 3 Ways and Fresh Herb Recipes

Preserving herbs is easy and it extends the life of the fresh herbs, so you can use them long after you have picked or bought them! I’ll show you 3 ways to preserve fresh herbs, including freezing herbs and I’ll share my recipes for an herb salt blend and herb vinegar. 

You can use the preserved herbs for yourself, but they make great DIY food gifts, too!

Okay my friends, something a little different for you today. This crazy Cotter is getting crafty! Say that 3x fast, haha! No really, I am! You see, it all began when my very patient husband bought me the wrong herbs for a recipe and photoshoot. So I asked him to go back to the store, again, to buy more(did I mention he’s a saint?). Well, to play it safe (so that he didn’t have to go back to the store for me for a third time) he ended up buying BAGS  and BAGS of all kinds herbs for me. Haha, okay, I get it. I learned my lesson Mr. Cotter. But also, I learned that you can never have to many herbs. Right? Because you can ALWAYS preserve them. And in several different ways.

Here are my favorite ways (and recipes) to preserve herbs, all kinds of herbs.

Don’t worry, you will not need fancy tools or expensive ingredients. Cheers to that!

Now let’s get crafty and resourceful, mmm k?

Preserving Herbs

There are actually more than 3 ways to preserve fresh herbs, but these 3 are my favorites, because they’re all so quick and easy!

1. Make Herb Vinegar

Homemade herb vinegar is a super easy and inexpensive holiday gift! To make vinegar with fresh herbs, you’ll need these ingredients:

• 2 cups red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
• 5 sprigs fresh herbs (such as oregano, rosemary, tarragon, or thyme), lightly crushed
• ½ teaspoon crushed chili flakes (optional)
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• pinch of kosher salt or sea salt

2. Make an Herb Salt Blend

Herb salt makes a great rub for steak, seafood, or poultry.

• 1 cup coarse kosher salt
• peppercorns
• pinch of garlic powder
• 1 cup mixed fresh herbs

Recipe Idea- Lightly dust this herb salt blend on my citrus salmon bake! Trust me when I say, it will and turn out divine..

3. Freeze Them!

Freezing herbs is one of the easiest ways to preserve them for a long period of time, and it’s SUPER handy to have fresh herbs ready to use whenever you need them.

You can freeze them in plastic condiment cups or ice tray, whatever you prefer.

Open the freezer, take out what you need, then drop the frozen herbs into your recipe of choice. I add frozen fresh herbs to my flu buster soup, breakfast egg bakes and so much more!

Best Way to Freeze Fresh Herbs

• Place chopped fresh mint leaves in an ice cube tray with lime juice, honey, and water. Later, you can use the cubes to make a mint sauce or dressing.
• Mix chopped fresh herbs with pepper and broth of your choice. Freeze and use later. Great for soup bases!
• Frozen cubes of fresh chopped basil, olive oil, lemon and water can be thawed to make an awesome vinaigrette dressing.

More Ways to Preserve Fresh Herbs

• Heat Drying

Another popular way of preserving herbs is to dry them with heat. Drying fresh herbs takes more time, because the drying takes place in an oven or a dehydrator. Heck, you could make a festive potpourri with my oven dried orange slices!

• Air Drying

For fresh herbs that come on stems, like rosemary or thyme, you can also just tie sprigs together and hang them upside down to air dry.

Now, let’s put it all together so you can print it off and keep these quick herb recipes in your kitchen. You know, just in case your spouse decides to buy you a whole garden. LOL!

Preserving Herbs – Fresh Herb Vinegar and Herb Salt

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★★★★★

5 from 5 reviews

• Author: Lindsay Cotter
• Total Time: 10 minutes
• Yield: N/A

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Description

Preserving herbs is easy to do and it allows you to use fresh herbs well after their shelf life would have expired! Fresh herb vinegar and herb salt blend are great DIY food gifts, too!

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For Herb Vinegar

• 2 cups red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
• 5 sprigs fresh herbs (such as oregano, rosemary, tarragon, or thyme), lightly torn
• ½ teaspoon crushed chili flakes (optional)
• ½ to 1 clove garlic (optional)
• pinch of kosher salt or sea salt

For Herb Salt Blend:

• 1 cup coarse kosher salt
• peppercorns
• pinch of garlic powder
• 1 cup mixed fresh herbs

For Freezing herbs

• See blog for details. You will need a little bit of the following
  • broth
  • seasonings of choice
  • Poultry herbs and mint
  • olive oil
  • lemon or lime juice

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

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Instructions

For Herb Vinegar:

1. Put vinegar and 4 to 5 sprigs of fresh herbs in a jar, add the optional chili flakes and garlic. Seal with a tight-fitting lid, and set aside to let infuse until flavors blend, 1 week up to 4 weeks..
2. Strain vinegar through a fine mesh sieve into a decorative bottle and add an additional herb sprig.
3. Tie on a hand-written card with serving suggestions around the neck of the bottle. Store in the refrigerator.

Herb Salt Blend:

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor bowl and blend until combined.
2. Transfer to a wide mouth canning jar or small jars for gifting. Cover, and store in fridge for 3 days, or freeze in zip top plastic bag for up to 1 month.

• Prep Time: 10
• Category: condiments, pantry staples
• Method: preserving
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: preserving herbs, herb salt, herb vinegar, how to preserve fresh herbs

See, it’s all pretty simple!

What’s your favorite of preserving herbs? I know my readers, they are clever and creative.

Do Share!

Cheers,

LC