Herbs: Storing Herbs and Keeping Herbs Fresh

There are two types of herbs - soft herbs and woody herbs. Soft herbs are just that, herbs that bruise easily, are delicate, and usually leafy. Examples are parsley, cilantro, basil, and chives.

Woody herbs are those herbs with thick woody stems like rosemary and thyme and will keep for at least a couple weeks in your fridge. The hardest herbs to keep fresh are the soft herbs. They have a tendency to wilt in your fridge and their shelf life is a lot shorter than their woody counterparts.

So here are a couple rules for storing and using fresh herbs.

I store all of my herbs except basil in the crisper drawer wrapped in paper towel. I feel that the paper towel absorbs some of the moisture that can often cause the herbs to get mushy. If you find the soft herbs wilt too fat before you can use them, put them in a small glass jar/cup and treat them like a bouquet of flowers and store in the fridge. Basil should be stored in water on the countertop as it doesn’t like cold.

If you have wilty soft herbs don't throw them away, there are still a couple ways you can use them.

First you could make an herb oil. Simply blanche the herbs (stems and all) in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 10 seconds. (The blanching will help keep the bright color) Dunk the herbs in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then add your herbs to a blender along with a cup of olive oil and blend on high. Strain the mixture through a strainer (or even a coffee filter ) and store in the fridge.

Also for another idea, you could make a pesto - here is a great recipe for parsley pesto. Note you can use whatever soft herbs you have here, it doesn’t need to be parsley and basil, cilantro or chives would work for example, just make sure you like the taste of whatever herb you are using.

You can also make a compound butter with any type of herb- simply mix together room temperature butter with chopped herbs and a pinch of salt and store in the fridge.

Lastly, if you just want to freeze herbs here is the best way to do it. Woody herbs like rosemary and thyme can be frozen in a single layer then stored in a plastic bag in the freezer. Soft herbs can be frozen by placing the herbs in a ice cube mold, covering with water then freezing. You can pop out the cubes of herbs one and at time and use them in all sorts of cooked dishes.