How to prepare basil for the winter? The best ways to preserve spicy greens

Basil is a very fragrant and beautiful herb. It contains many useful microelements and vitamins. This spicy plant is used for the preparation of salads, sauces, marinades and soups. The presence of basil in dishes promotes good digestion. Therefore, it is so important to use it all year round. If you do not have the opportunity to grow this spice in the cold season on a balcony or window, then take care of the summer harvesting basil for future use. You can do it in ways that are described in detail in the materials of this article. We invite you to familiarize yourself with them and take them into service.

How to prepare basil for the winter? The advice of our grandmothers

Since ancient times, the herbs have been preserved in dried form. But you need to know how to do it right. The technology of drying basil at home is given to your attention.

Young greens need to be washed under running water, dried and chopped. Spread the basil on a flat surface (a piece of plywood, a pan, a tray of a dryer) and leave to dry in a dry, darkened room. It can be an attic, a shaded loggia, a barn. The spicy herb dries naturally in about five days.

Oven and dehydrator are electrical appliances in which you can dry the greens. How to prepare basil for the winter in them? The answer is simple: quick and easy. A bowl with the herbs spread on it should be placed in the appliance and kept at a temperature of 40 degrees until it dries completely. Check the "readiness" can be as follows: rub the leaf with your fingers. Dry grass will grind well in hands and rustle. Remember that during the drying process in the oven its door should be slightly open.

Store greens in a dry place in tissue bags or glass containers.

Pickled basil

Spicy greens harvested in this way can be used as a dressing for first courses and vegetable sauces for meat and fish.

Ingredients: basil (10 beams), vinegar 9%, salt rock, sugar (40 grams), garlic (2 cloves per 0.5 liter jar).

How to prepare basil for the winter by the way of pickling: the description of the process.

Put garlic and greens in each jar. In a saucepan, boil water (2 liters), sugar, vinegar, rock salt. Pour marinade containers with herbs and sterilize them in boiling water for ten minutes. Clog the cans with lids for conservation. Wrap the blanks with a blanket and allow to cool naturally.

Frozen basil. How to keep the greens in the refrigerator right for the winter?

Dry method of freezing. Wash and dried greens to grind, pack in plastic bags, release air from them and tie them to a knot. Put the packages in the freezer. After a while, stir the package to spice up. If this is not done, the entire basil can freeze in one piece, and later it will not be usable to use.

Wet way to freeze greens. Shredded grass should be placed in ice molds, poured with cooled boiled or filtered water and put in a freezer. When the contents of the molds turn into ice cubes with greens, shake them into a bag, wrap and leave in the freezer. For convenience, each cube can be wrapped in a food film.

You learned how to prepare basil for the winter in many ways. Choose the one that is most convenient for you to perform. Greens harvested for future use by these methods, retains all the useful properties, and you can be sure that you feed your family with a natural and useful product.