After my mint pruning exercise I was left with an excess supply of mint even after I had set aside quite a few pieces for propagation.
Although I really brought this upon myself, having an excess of herbs can be a common situation. Prepackaged or prebundled herbs sold at supermarkets, greengrocers or markets are very often sold in quantities larger than that which the average user can consume before they spoil. So how can you preserve unused herbs? The answer is, by freezing them!
Begin by washing and chopping or leafing your herbs. Because when using mint in things like drinks, whole leaves are often an attractive feature, I decided to just leaf my mint rather than chopping it. If I want chopped mint, I can always chop it later.
Once you have washed and prepared your herbs, place them in clean ice cube trays (I used cute silicon flower ones from ikea) and then fill with water or broth for herbs likely to be used in savoury dishes.
Then freeze. Once your herb cubes are frozen, you can pop them out and store them in
a ziploc bag until needed. Remember to always label bags in e freezer with the contents, month and year so that when you find them six months later, you remember what the contents is.
Once you have your frozen herbs, how do you use them? There are many ways. Of course you can melt the cubes and use the herbs as normal, but you don’t always need to. When cooking, you can just toss the herb cubes straight in. The cubes will melt and the water will evaporate leaving you with your delicious herbs in the dish. However, my main plan for the mint cubes is to toss them whole into drinks, for chilled, minty refreshment.
I’m reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.
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