Preserving herbs for long-term storage is a fun and easy way to save money and make sure fresh herbs don’t go to waste. I’ll show you 3 ways to preserve fresh herbs — freezing herbs, herb salt blends, and herb vinegar. Plus, these all make great DIY food gifts!
This all began when my very patient husband bought me the wrong herbs for a recipe and photoshoot. To be fair, cilantro and parsley really do look alike! When he went back to grab what I needed, he decided he would cover all his bases and buy me one of everything they had! And because I am the queen of not wanting food to go to waste, I decided to preserve them!
Here are my favorite ways to preserve all kinds of different herbs!
Preserving Herbs
These are my 3 favorite ways to preserve fresh herbs because they are quick, easy, and you don’t need any fancy tools or expensive ingredients.
Herb Vinegar
Homemade herb vinegar is a super easy and inexpensive holiday gift!
Ingredients
- Vinegar – Red wine vinegar or cider vinegar work best.
- Fresh herbs – Oregano, rosemary, tarragon, or thyme, lightly crushed.
- Seasonings – Crushed chili flakes, fresh garlic cloves, salt and pepper.
Instructions
All you have to do is place everything in a jar or container, seal, and allow everything to infuse for a couple weeks!
Herb Salt Blend
Herb salt makes a great rub for steak, seafood, or poultry.
Ingredients
- Coarse kosher salt
- Peppercorns
- Garlic powder
- Mixed fresh herbs
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a food processor bowl and blend until combined, transfer to glass jar(s), and refrigerate or freeze!
How to Use – Lightly dust this herb salt blend on my citrus salmon bake! Trust me when I say, it will and turn out divine.
Freezing Herbs
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. 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.
You can freeze them in plastic condiment cups or ice tray, whatever you prefer.
More Ways to Preserve Fresh Herbs
- Heat Drying – To oven-dry, spread washed and dried herbs in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake at the lowest heat setting (typically 170°F) for 1-3 hours, checking every 20-30 minutes until dry.
This is the same method I use to make my oven dried orange slices that are great as a cocktail garnish, snack, and are so pretty in a festive potpourri!
- 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.
More of Our Favorite
Recipes That Use Fresh Herbs
Preserving Herbs – Fresh Herb Vinegar and Herb Salt
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: N/A
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!
Ingredients
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
Instructions
For Herb Vinegar:
- 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..
- Strain vinegar through a fine mesh sieve into a decorative bottle and add an additional herb sprig.
- Tie on a hand-written card with serving suggestions around the neck of the bottle. Store in the refrigerator.
Herb Salt Blend:
- Place all ingredients in a food processor bowl and blend until combined.
- 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
Such a great idea. Will be trying this out.
keep me posted!
Great gift giving ideas! Love it as I’m always trying to come up with something unique for those hard to buy for people.
Freezing spices, who knew? Honestly, I didn’t think it would work, but the way you explained it sounds pretty neat. It’s wondrous to see what new things you learn in preservation and the science of food!
I need to do better about stuff like this. I buy a bunch of herbs and it’s basically guaranteed I’m going to waste at least half. Doh.
Love your craftyness, Linds! No doubt the herbs are waining… so this is perfect timing, really! Your herb salt blend has my attention. Beautiful work!
Hello Lindsay,
Thanks for sharing the amazing idea to preserve herbs. 🙂
This is an excellent (and really pretty) tutorial!
I do lots of pesto with my herbs and of course, the herb salt is awesome, especially with rosemary and herb butter. Yum!
I knew I could count on you for more ideas! My green thumb fabulous friend!
These are the best tips! My garden is overflowing with fresh herbs and now I have so many ways to preserve them!
Wish I had this 2 weeks ago when my parsley died. Such a wonderful idea!
Crafty Cotter creations! Love it. I do this mainly with basil and oregano, but I know I need to branch out.
haha maybe that should be my new blog. 🙂