The summer is coming to an end in my part of the world. I’m lucky enough to have a beautiful outside space where I can grow fresh herbs which boost the flavour in my cooking. The growing season is short, but that doesn’t mean that I have to give up on taste when the snow starts to fall. There is something wonderful about a bright dose of oregano on a dreary winter night to remind me of warmer days.

When you are preserving herbs, I suggest you consider how they will be used in the future. For example, if you typically cook oregano in dishes that involve olive oil rather than butter, like I do, then use this technique to preserve oregano. In my next post I’ll talk about how to use homemade butter to store other herbs.

I’ve given you a couple of options below for how to make these, depending on whether you have access to a food processor.

Hands-on time: 10-15 minutes

Total time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups fresh herbs of your choice, washed carefully
• 1 cup olive oil

Directions

1. Prepare the herb-olive oil mixture:
   • Low-tech option:
     • Chop herbs (1.5 cups), removing stems as you go
     • Place chopped herbs in a bowl and over them with olive oil (1 cup)
     • Stir together
   • With a food processor:
     • Place herb leaves (1.5 cups) (stems removed) and olive oil (1 cup) in food processor
     • Pulse quickly just to slightly break up the leaves
2. Freeze herb-olive oil mixture (2 ways):
   • Cookie sheet method
     • Spread mixture over a cookie sheet covered with parchment
     • Freeze for up to two hours
     • Break or cut into slices and store in an air-tight container or bag, you can then break off a piece any time a recipe calls for fresh herbs
   • Ice cube tray method
     • Distribute mixture into an ice cube tray
     • Freeze for up to two hours
     • Store the cubes in an air-tight container or bag

Notes:

• The cookie sheet method above isn’t quite as elegant as the ice cube tray method, but I find it a bit more practical. I can break off exactly the right amount of frozen herbs for any given dish, while it isn’t always so easy to use part of a cube made in an ice cube tray.
• As long as they are green rather than woody, don’t throw away the stems! I keep them in the freezer and pull them out to bump up the taste of broth later on.