Basil Cubes

One of the things I needed to harvest this past week was basil.
I have five pots of basil and it grows quickly. It was time to preserve it.

Long before I ever had anything that could be called a garden (even by city standards) I’ve grown basil. Fresh basil adds so much flavor to dishes but a lot (maybe even more) of those dishes are during the months when I can’t grow basil outdoors.

Yes you can buy those little basil plants that you can find in the produce section of the grocery store but they are expensive. I only buy them if it is for homemade Margherita pizza.

The rest of the time I use my basil that I preserved from my plants grown in the summer.

“How do you preserve basil?” you ask. Well, it is really so simple that I feel embarrassed telling you about it. BUT, if even one of you has never done this then my post will not be wasted.

I’ve used it with huge bunches of basil purchased at farmers markets as well as home grown basil. Here is the process:

If you are growing the basil (Trader Joe’s has great pots of basil for only a few dollars) you will need to cut the plant back to encourage more growth. As a matter of fact, if you cut your basil back when it is young it will grow into a bushier plant producing more leaves.

Harvesting the basil plant for basil cubes involves more cutting. I cut my plants back a lot. You just need to make sure and leave one joint on each stem with some leaves on it.

Once you’ve collected as many stems as you can I take them in and cut off all of the leaves (composting the stems). I put the leaves in a salad spinner and give them a good rinse and dry.

Once they are clean and mostly dry I pack them into my food processor with the metal blade. The only things I add to the basil leaves are crushed garlic cloves (as many or as few as you like) and Olive Oil. The garlic is most likely going to be in any of the recipes that call for basil and the Olive Oil helps to bind the basil and preserve the color.

Turn it on and let it go. You will need to scrape the sides down once or twice. If you have enough basil leaves you can continue adding more leaves.

Once you have that done fill empty ice cube trays , cover with plastic wrap, and freeze. The next day you can pop them out and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag. They will keep for a year in the freezer. I usually end up with about four quart size bags.

I add it to spaghetti sauce, chicken dishes, soups , stews and a variety of other things. You get that fresh basil flavor and color straight from your garden in the dead of winter without having to spend any extra money.

You don’t need to be a “gardener” to grow basil. One basil plant is all you need to have fresh basil all year long.

Go buy a basil plant if you don’t have one.
Karen