Basil and olive oil icecubes for cooking

A quick and easy way to preserve basil by freezing it with olive oil - great for using all-year-round in pasta dishes, omlettes, steaks, fish, chicken, sausages, and fried and baked vegetables.

I love basil and always have a few basil plants in the garden. Since basil tends to go to seed without regular pruning I make sure to harvest a good handful of leaves once a fortnight... but what to do with all that basil?!?

Well I turn mine into basil and olive oil icecubes (a great preservation method I read about online somewhere). They're quick and easy to make, and fantastic for pasta dishes, omlettes, steaks, fish, chicken, sausages, and fried and baked vegetables.

Step 1 Pick and rinse your basil leaves

Pick a good handful or two of basil leaves and soak them in a bowl of water for a few minutes to remove any dirt.

Apparently the best time of day to pick basil is before 10am as this is when the leaves contain the most oil and taste the best.

When clean put your basil leaves on paper towel and pat dry.

Comments

[grannyjones]

I blended olive oil with lean bacon.
Under my fried eggs--it's to die for.

[Nelyan]

Ooh! Great idea! I must tell this to my mother, she has almost too much basil growing in her garden! :) Hmm. This reminds me; how about some home-made chicken stock-cubes?

[ladyKrone]

Such a good idea! I've been trying this with thyme and pesto as well and it works great! I have a few of the small, flexible ice trays lying around the house that are way to small to be useful for ice cubes but make just the right amount of herb/oil cubes :)

[swampfox]

you can do this with pesto too! Just make your pesto, put it in icecube trays with olive oil over top and freeze.. remove when frozen and store in bags.

[Gottwinkies]

This is great! My sister in law is a huge herb gardener and she does this a bit differently-just puts olive oil in a blender, adds her herbs until until she has a runny paste and then she freezes it in either ice cubes or in a small container. Voila! a tiny scoop out of the container and she has a great addition to any dish. Great job putting this into an 'ible. I encourage you to try it with different herbs or try a blender if you REALLY have a lot of basil/rosemary/yummy herbs

[Jayefuu]

(N)ice ible! I have some herb cubes in my freezer :)

[tim_n]

What I like doing is coming on instructables with an idea and finding it's already been done and done well with pictures! You can also use water when freezing, or if you don't have an icecube tray you can spoon the mixture (either oil or water) into a plastic bag and lay it flat on the freezer shelf. Then just shatter it and use the chunks as needed. Another thing, don't store the icecubes in the tray. Once you've frozen them, empty the tray into a plastic bag leaving you free to make more and it's quicker to get them out too!

[hsteel]

Thanks fallscrape :) I like your freezing water idea, I think that would work really well for soups and steamed vegies, or stirfries where you want the vegies a bit more boiled than fried.

[mouthwashninja]

That's really neat! Hmmm... do you think this could work with other herbs as well?

[moonshinebluebird]

Thank you so much! I just got off the phone with my mother discussing freezing basil and wow I never ever would of thought to freeze the olive oil! Your rock :)

[hsteel]

Glad to help and thanks for your lovely comment :)

[alex-sharetskiy]

wow, the oil really freezes?

[hsteel]

Yes, and that consequently preserves the basil :)

[Babyshoes]

Simple yet effective! I didn't think the oil would freeze, for some reason!

[homesteadcat]

Great idea! I have some basil in the garden and will make some cubes tomorrow. Thanks!!

[hsteel]

Thank you :) I hope your icecubes turn out well, just yell if you have any questions!

[aliceownsj00]

Never fear, I too have a deep love of Ikea! This is a great idea, my mother in-law would love this idea, she's always going outside while cooking to get fresh basil haha

[hsteel]

Thanks very much :) Hehe me too before I started making these.