Making your own herb oil is a great way to preserve soft herbs like parsley, basil or dill if they’re starting to wilt! Once you’ve done it once, you’ll never throw away the sad end of a bag of herbs again.
The steps are the same for any soft green herb, and you can do them separately so you’ve got specific flavours or combine any you like for a bright green oil you can drizzle over anything from salad to pasta to add some fresh flavour and a pop of colour.
Ingredients:
- Any green herbs – no need to remove the stems, the flavour is everywhere!
- Oil – you can use a neutral oil to let the herbs stand out, or use olive oil if you want to add to the flavour
You want roughly an equal amount of herbs and oil, but you don’t need to be precise if you can’t weigh them. You can judge it by eye and just keep adding oil into the blender until it looks like a puree – sort of like a jar of pesto.
Directions:
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and prepare a bowl of iced water on the side – you’ll need to move the herbs quickly from hot to cold so make sure the path between the two is clear!
Add your herbs to the boiling water for about 15 seconds – just until the leaves and stems have turned bright green, and then quickly drain and add to your ice bath. This step keeps the flavour and the colour bright.
Once cool, drain your herbs and dry them thoroughly with a tea towel, squeezing to get as much moisture as you can out. Then add to a blender with a neutral flavoured oil or olive oil and blend until it’s as smooth as you can get it, at least 2-3 minutes.
Line a sieve with a cheesecloth or coffee filter and let the herb oil drip out of the bottom into a bowl. This will take a few hours, and you can stir every now and again to help the process, but don’t press or squeeze it.
That’s it! Once your bright green oil has all dripped through, you can transfer it to a bottle or jar and store in the fridge for up to a week.