Basil is one of our favourite herbs to grow because once the plants get established, they produce more than we can possibly use fresh. If you’re starting at the beginning, our guide on how to grow basil from seed walks through the entire process from planting to harvest.
But come mid-summer basil always sneaks up on us, we have a few leaves in the greenhouse, then before we know it all the outdoor basil is big and ready to harvest.
After years of experimenting with different ways to preserve it, this is how we freeze basil now. We blend the fresh leaves with a little olive oil and freeze them into individual pucks that can be dropped straight into tomato sauces, soups and other recipes throughout the winter.
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Quick Answer: How to Freeze Basil
Freezing basil is as simple as harvesting it, picking off the leaves, washing them, then blending it in a food processor with a little bit of oil. Add the basil to a silicone muffin tin and freeze. After 24-48 hours, the basil pucks can be moved into a freezer bag for long term storage. Use in sauces or soups all winter long.
Why We Freeze Basil Instead Of Drying It
This is the biggest question we get asked by friends and family – why freeze basil?
If you’ve read our other articles on drying thyme or drying dill, we love to use our dehydrator for drying herbs. But basil has been very different for us.
We’ve tried drying fresh basil in the dehydrator, but we’ve never been happy with the results. The leaves tend to turn brown and lose a lot of the fresh basil flavour we’re trying to preserve in the first place.
So instead of fighting with the dehydrator, we put our basil in the food processor with a little olive oil and freeze it in silicone muffin pan. Once frozen, the basil pucks go into a freezer bag and we pull them out as needed.
When To Harvest Basil For Freezing
We harvest basil throughout the summer, which actually encourages the plants to continue producing. We also propagate basil from cuttings early in the season so we have plenty of plants producing by the time preserving season arrives.
The best time to harvest basil is:
- before it flowers
- after morning dew dries (mid-late morning or early evening)
- before frost
The most important part about harvesting basil is to harvest often. Regular harvesting encourages the plant to branch out and continue producing new leaves throughout the summer.
Supplies
- lots of fresh basil
- extra virgin olive oil
- salad spinner or towel
- food processor
- silicone muffin pan
- freezer bags
How To Freeze Basil
Freezing basil is fairly simple. All you need is fresh basil, a little olive oil, a food processor and some freezer space. Here’s exactly how we make our frozen basil pucks.
Step 1: Harvest Fresh Basil
Using clean garden pruners, harvest your large abundance of basil.
Step 2: Pick Leaves and Wash
Bring your harvest in, and – this is the tedious part – go through and pick the good leaves. Add the good, fresh leaves to a salad spinner, wash them well, then spin them until most of the excess water is removed.
Step 3: Add to Food Processor & Blend
Now add your basil leaves into the food processor. Add in 1-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to your basil as it’s processing. You don’t need enough oil to turn this into pesto. We’re only adding enough to help the basil blend into a thick mixture. Start with 1 tablespoon and add more as needed.
We also add about 1 tablespoon of water as well to help everything blend together.
See the image below – this is the consistency we aim for.
Step 4: Add to Muffin Tins & Freeze
Scoop out the blended basil and add them to the silicone muffin pan Then add to the freezer to freeze into the puck shape. This takes about 24-48 hours.
Step 5: Remove from Tin & Add To Storage Container
Once you can remove the mini basil pucks from the tin, add them to a freezer bag and use as needed in sauces, soups, crockpot recipes and more.
How Long Does Frozen Basil Last?
It can last years! We usually use ours within the year by adding it to pasta sauces. It’s always best to use sooner rather than later.
Other Ways We Freeze Basil
Freeze Pesto
Outside of freezing the fresh basil leaves alone. You can make a 5 ingredient basil pesto in the food processor. Once your pesto is made, add it to the muffin tins and freeze the pesto pucks to use as needed!
Learn how to make Simple & Easy 5 Ingredient Basil Pesto
Don’t Forget To Save Some Basil Seeds
Freezing isn’t the only thing we do with our basil at the end of summer. We also let a few healthy plants flower so we can save basil seeds for next year’s garden. That way we’re preserving both this year’s harvest and next year’s crop.
FAQ
If you’re looking for the flavour of fresh basil in a soup or sauce – yes. But it’s not something you want to add to a caprese salad or ontop of a pizza.
You could, I wouldn’t recommend doing it all the time. If you take out a basil puck from the freezer try to use it.
Basil leaves are delicate and can turn brown or black when the leaf cells are damaged by bruising, cold temperatures or processing. Once damaged, enzymes in the leaves react with oxygen and cause the leaves to darken. We’ve found this especially frustrating when trying to dry basil in our dehydrator, which is one of the reasons we prefer freezing it instead.
Related Articles
- Simple & Easy 5 Ingredient Basil Pesto
- How To Harvest and Dry Thyme
- How to Dry Dill (Using a Dehydrator)
- Garlic Scapes: What They Are and How to Use Them
Final Thoughts
Every summer we freeze several bags of basil. It takes very little time, saves us from wasting fresh herbs, and gives us basil ready to use all winter long. Whether we’re making tomato sauce, homemade pesto, or soup, it’s one of the easiest ways to preserve our harvest.
If you’re on a gardening preserving journey at home, you can explore all of our hands-on advice in our Garden Based Preserving, based on what actually works here on our homestead.
We are growing our website with more articles all the time, and we invite you to grow with us. If you have any questions about how to freeze basil or would like to share some of your knowledge with us please leave a comment below. Happy Gardening!
