I was wanting to chop and freeze some parsley. Anyone else do this? Does parsley freeze well? I've got quite a bit of it coming on and need to do something with the excess. Thanks!

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), June 06, 2002

Answers

Well, Annie, I don't know a thing about freezing it. I've always just dried it, and stored it that way. Hope someone can answer your question.

-- Cheryl in KS (klingonbunny@planetkc.com), June 06, 2002.

I've frozen parsley, chives, basil, and lemon balm in the past.

If you want it for adding to soups, stews, chop the herb, then put in water in ice trays, and then when frozen put in "ziplock" bags.

I have just chopped herbs and put them in ziplock bags, and used them that way. Once you open the bag though, they will usually take on ice crystals. I still use them.

Another way is to melt butter, place herbs in the butter, and then freeze the butter & herbs.

-- Granny Hen (cluckin along@cs.com), June 06, 2002.

Annie...I've frozen parsley both when it was fresh and dried. Works wonderfully both ways!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), June 06, 2002.

I froze a little bit of basil the summer of '99 and just pulled it out of the freezer last month. It tasted wonderful!! All I did was to wrap it in waxed paper and then seal it in a ziploc baggie. Tasted like I had just picked it. YOu could probably do the same thing with parsley. Carla Emery suggests in her book to shove a bunch in a quart jar, put the lid on and freeze. Then you just remove what you need and stick the jar back in the freezer.

Annie, is this flat-leaf parsley or curly? Did you grow any basil? I found a recipe in a magazine yesterday for pesto which uses parsley, to. It says preferably flat-leaf but you gotta use what you have, right? I'll post the recipe if you or anyone else is interested. You could make a whole bunch of pesto and then freeze little containers of it. Pesto freezes well.

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), June 07, 2002.

Thanks all, for the help! Think I'll chop some and do some whole. A little variety. hee hee Hi Bren, it's flat leaf parsley and I'd love for you to post your recipe for pesto. One year, I looked and looked for a recipe to can pesto, but couldn'r find one. I'd much prefer to freeze it anyway, so this is great! Dave loves pesto on pasta (say that fast!), and I was thinking it'd be a good, quick easy dish to make during the year if I had it on hand.

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), June 07, 2002.

I got the parsley put up this morning, and hope I did it right. Cut it, then brought it in and washed it really good. Held on to the stems then shook out the excess water. Dried it on paper towels, cut off the larger stems and then put it whole in plastic freezer bags. I ended up with 4 bags. Yeah! I thought I would leave it whole and then just take out what I need and chop it up at the time.

Another question....I didn't pull out the roots when picking, so will new parsley grow on the plants?

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), June 08, 2002.

Annie, it sounds like you did it EXACTLY right! And, yes, most likely the plants will grow new leaves and you can do this all over again later! Heeheehee :o)

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), June 08, 2002.

Geez Bren, that sounds like sooooo much fun! :) I couldn't believe how much parsley I got out of just 7 or 8 plants!

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), June 08, 2002.