Dry fresh herbs in 30 seconds flat – really!
October 29th, 2011 by PJ Hamel
Hello, No-Knead Garlic-Cheese Flatbread!
Nice to see you, Garlic Herb Mac & Cheese.
Ah, Herb & Onion Rolls…
What do all of these have in common?
Herbs.
And, unless it’s summer, or you’ve got a windowsill garden, or you live in temperate climes year-round, that means dried herbs.
But it doesn’t have to mean tasteless, drab, stale herbs.
There’s a fast, simple way to preserve your garden-fresh herbs — their flavor, AND their color.
The secret?
Your microwave.
Example A: parsley. Just picked, from my deck-rail planter.
Example B: parsley. Microwaved for 1 minute. DRY AS TOAST, ready to store.
Yet still aromatic, still bright green.
Example A: Tarragon. LOVE this licorice-like herb; it’s great with chicken.
Example B: microwave-dried tarragon.
Simply run thumb and finger along the stem from bottom to top to remove leaves; then crumble between your fingers, and store in a glass jar, ready for your salad dressing, bearnaise sauce… or tarragon chicken. (Check out Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One, p. 262, for a great recipe.)
Microwave-dried mint. Light as a feather; green as the day it was born.
Ready to crumble and use in…
…Tzatziki, perhaps?
Honestly, this simple trick works like a charm.
You’ll have to experiment with your own herbs and microwave; I found that the time needed to dry each type of herb varied quite a lot, with mint being the quickest to dry, parsley the slowest.
Times will also vary depending on the quantity of what you cook; I’d suggest a smaller amount of herbs at a time, rather than larger.
Try just 1 or 2 sprigs first, to get an idea of how long it’ll take; start with about 20 seconds, take them out, wait a minute, then see if they’re completely dry.
When you’ve nailed the time, simply lay the fresh-picked herbs in a single layer on a plate, not crowding them. Cook until dry.
That’s it.
Oh, and one last thing: Check this space Wednesday, Nov. 2, for Butterflake Herb Loaf, a truly outstanding recipe from our Baking Sheet newsletter.
And the perfect vehicle for the herbs you’ll be drying soon!
Tags: drying herbs, herbs, microwave
October 30th, 2011 at 6:07 am
Perfect timing. With frost on the pumpkins here in Ohio I have an abundance of parsley I don’t want to go to waste. Now I’ll have some Christmas gifts. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Stephanie. My husband came in with a huge “bouquet” of herbs Friday, having cleaned out my deck-rail planters… And I took care of the whole thing, from fresh to dried, crumbled, bottled, labeled, and stored, in under an hour! It was so cool… I’m thinking this will be very useful when your recipe calls for, say, 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, and you have to buy the whole big bunch… PJH
October 30th, 2011 at 8:05 am
just be careful! I remember once setting sage alight by drying it for too long. Turn the microwave on for short periods and keep an eye on it. Thanks for the tip! ~Mel
October 30th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Just in time before the big snow?
Does nuking the herbs drive off the essential oils?
Hey, Tom. This method is most effective for herbs with lower oil content: PJ used all low-oil herbs. The microwave agitates the water molecules in the leaves and causes them to evaporate through the pores. Herbs like rosemary and thyme, which have more oil, don’t work as well; the oil is a more effective heat conductor and “cooks” the leaves. Susan
October 31st, 2011 at 2:30 am
Any way to do this in the oven? I don’t have a microwave. I also live in Oregon and just hanging them to dry doesn’t work like it did when I lived in AZ (now they just turn brown
). thx! You can dry your herbs in the oven, but they don’t keep the bright colors as with microwaving. To oven dry, spread a layer of leaves or stems on a cookie sheet or shallow baking pan. Place the herbs in a warm (up to 180 F) oven for 3 to 4 hours. Leave the door open and stir the herbs periodically until they are thoroughly dry. ~Mel
October 31st, 2011 at 8:53 am
Cannot thank you enough! I have a HUGE tarragon plant outside, and was wondering what to do before the first frost hits
awesome idea, will be doing it tonight…
October 31st, 2011 at 10:34 am
I saw this last night and tried it this morning with cilantro. It was perfect. A beautiful bright green just ready for crumbling and adding to my seasoning mix. I am sold. Will remember this from now on.
October 31st, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Tomorrow’s experiment: I wonder if you could dry onion that way too, if you watched it and were really careful. Are you thinking that might be possible? Is that why you put the herb and dried-onion recipe here? I’m so excited to have this information about the microwave and herbs. I used to grow many herbs than I do now–I gave up trying to preserve them. Now I can’t wait to grow tarragon and thyme again. Thank you.
Hmmm, I have no idea, Marcin, if you could do onion this way. I put the roll recipe in because it uses dried herbs, and wasn’t considering the onion… How about giving it a try and letting us all know how it goes? PJH
October 31st, 2011 at 9:45 pm
I just tried this with rosemary and thyme. The rosemary worked pretty well, but some of the leaves started turning brown. With the thyme however almost all the leaves turned deep brown almost immediately. any thoughts on why?
My first thought is that it’s some kind of a chemical reaction, but I wouldn’t know for sure. Perhaps thyme dries REALLY quickly – if you have any left, start with, like, 10 seconds, and see what happens. Thanks for posting your results here, Alyssa – it helps all of us figure out how this will work with various herbs. PJH
November 1st, 2011 at 8:56 am
Thanks sooooooooooooo much for this tip! I had just harvested my herbs from my deck rail planters over the weekend, and had them all over the kitchen counters. I was dreading the process I used to use to dry them, and then I saw your blog. Last night, in between the trick-or-treaters, I was able to get all of my herbs dried and put in jars which now line my kitchen counters and look so very much better than the herb harvest! I LOVE the fresh, green color the herbs maintain with this method.
Plus, PJ, now I know we share two things in common–love of baking and deck rail planters full of herbs!!! Thanks again.
Deck-rail planters are so handy – just step out of the kitchen, snip-snip, back you go… Glad it worked well for you. PJH
November 1st, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I missed this in time to dry this summer’s herbs, but so often I buy fresh herbs in the off seasons for a recipe and don’t use all of them. I’ll give this a try then.
I know, Cindy, I hear you – especially cilantro, I’m always left with a bunch of that I don’t know what to do with… Have fun experimenting! PJH
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:46 am
Regarding the thyme and rosemary – I find that if I just tie a bunch with a string or rubberband and hang it upside down in the kitchen (bit of a witchy decor twist), it air dries in a few days. Those 2 have hardly any water content to vaporize, which of course is why they can thrive even in hot dry weather. I imagine same would be true of curry leaf, allspice leaf, bay leaf, maybe marjoram, a few others. But for the others that have significant water content (the ones that wilt in hot dry weather) – this is genius! thanks!
Karen, I think you’ve put your finger on it beautifully! Susan