Fresh herbs give your food that special boost in flavor and aroma, whether it is a subtle oomph or a real flavor punch in the face.  But too often you find yourself with a big bunch of herbs because that’s how they sell it in the stores, and all you need is a tiny spoonful for that dish you are making.  Then you end up forgetting about the leftover herbs, and then guiltily throwing the wilted and slimy remains away.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way.  Here are two ways to make the most out of your fresh herbs.

I love going to the Asian grocery stores.  I don’t live too close to any of them, so I get really excited when I do go to one.  When I went last week, I couldn’t resist their 3 bunches of green onions for $1 sale.  Compared to how much they cost at the regular grocery stores, that was a great deal.  So I bought all 3 bunches.  I only ended up cooking 2 bunches of green onions, and I had no plans to use up the last bunch.  Green onions are not herbs, but the methods for preserving them are the same.

Here is the last lonely bunch of green onions.  I didn’t know if I’d be using them over the week, so I decided to keep them in the fridge for the time being.  I put them in a cup with a little water in it.

Then I put the plastic produce bag over the cup, and rolled a rubber band over the bottom of the cup to close the bag.  I put the cup of green onions in the fridge.

These are the green onions after a week of sitting in the fridge.  Other than some slightly raggedy looking tops, they look good.  No wilting or sliminess.  How long your herbs will keep fresh using this method will vary depending on the herb, so keep an eye on them after a few days.

I also use this trick with vegetables.  Once I bought a 6 pack of romaine lettuce from Costco, because…I don’t know what I was thinking.  That last head of lettuce took forever to eat.  I ended up keeping it in water for over 3 weeks, and that was after it sat in the vegetable drawer for a while.  I did change the water every few days.

Also, if you have sad, limp vegetables, putting them in cold water in the fridge with the bag over them can help revitalize and perk them back up.  I’ve done it with various greens and carrots.

I decided that I wouldn’t be using the green onions anytime soon, so instead of letting them rot in the fridge, I decided to freeze them.  I got out my silicone ice cube trays.

I washed and chopped up the green onions, and then filled up the trays.

I filled the tray with water.  Since the silicone trays are floppy, I put them on a plastic lid to easily carry and place them into the freezer.  You can also fill the trays up with oil instead of water.

After the cubes are frozen, pop them out and store them in a freezer bag.  Besides herbs and green onion, I also freeze ginger in cubes when I have too much leftover.  It’s really convenient to have these cubes on hand when making sauces, stir fries, and soups or stews.  Now you can save money and save good food!  Huzzah!

If you use silicone ice cube trays, they may smell like whatever was in them.  Right now, my trays smell very oniony.  For my trays, the smell comes out after a few cycles through the dishwasher and air drying.  If your trays still smell, there are various ways to deodorize, like soaking in a solution of water and white vinegar, or water and baking soda, etc.  Google has the answer.