We’ve never lived where we could buy good, fresh herbs in the grocery store, especially during the middle o the winter, so I do everything within my power to save as many of my herbs as I can. The basil is producing like crazy and I’m trying to stay ahead of it, cutting it back before it flowers and goes to seed. In previous years, I’ve made pesto and frozen it in ice cubes, then dumped those into freezer bags. This year I found these Frozen Herb Starters at Wal-Mart.
Frozen Herb Starters
There are two trays per box. I like them because they’re nice and deep and there are only 9 holes and they have a lid.
Frozen Herb Starters
The basil is washed, then a bit of lemon juice added, garlic from the garden is added, along with a little olive oil and it’s blended in the Ninja chopper.
Basil
A pretty good batch of basil fills up one container. This was half a grocery sack of basil . . stems and all and when I cut off the leaves, and ground them down, it only filled up 9 cubes and some of the cubes could have had a bit more in them! It takes a lot of basil!
Basil
I stick it in the freezer overnight.
Basil
Then dump the cubes, stick them in a ziplock bag and stick it in the freezer til needed.
Basil
I didn’t add any kind of nuts because sometimes, I’ll just want basil flavor and not really pesto but I’d be real happy if I could end up with 100 cubes of this mixture before the basil is gone.
Pat says
Love this idea…..better than ice trays!
Judy H says
I do this with soft rubber ice trays. They’re deeper than regular trays, but don’t have lids. I put the whole tray in a freezer bag and pop out what I need when I need it. I just chop basil, stuff the cube, then pour in a little olive oil.
I like to make pesto and freeze it, too….But I put it away by the batch in freezer bags and lay them flat in the freezer. Then it thaws quickly and I have a fresh batch of pesto any time I want! Last year I made several batches of sun dried tomato pesto, too. Super 100’s dehydrate well for homemade “sun dried” tomatoes! 🙂
If you want my sun dried tomato pesto recipe, just let me know. It is a wonderful pizza sauce.
Trudie says
I would love the recipe! Thanks
Dar in MO says
I would love that recipe for the sun dried tomato pesto. I am growing Super 100’s this year. Thanks much.
Gardenpat says
Got some of those (different brand) at IKEA for 99 cents each!! Great idea!!
Sherrill says
That is a cool idea (although I don’t have any fresh herbs! 🙁 )
Lee says
It’s cool you found just the trays – I’ll have to look for them. Awhile back I found both plain basil, and cilantro, in a container similar at a Trader Joe’s in our area. It seems they had something else, but I don’t recall what it was, maybe mince garlic.
AmyM says
Wow… we were just trying to figure out what to do with all the basil. never had much luck with pesto. This is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
shelley says
Would love to know your ratio on this! Love my basil, but usually have good luck just drying it. I think this would keep more of the flavor., Thanks for the idea. I’ll be looking for some of these trays.
Barbara says
Thanks for this….my basil is growing like crazy but it is raining/storming every day and much too humid to dry it right now.
Freezing is a perfect solution and I like that these trays have covers on them.
Connie says
Thanks for the idea. Those trays look perfect. Now I just need the basil to come in.
Beth C in MA says
Great idea. I see a trip to walmart in my future.