How to Use Leftover Fresh Herbs

Featured Pro: Curtis Stone
Category: Cooking
Time: 2:07


CURTIS STONE: Hey, I’m Curtis Stone. I’ve got a great Trade Secret that’ll show you how to get the most out of your herbs.

Now, I know when you buy a bunch of herbs, sometimes you get it home. You use it for that one recipe, and then you think, well, it’s just going to sit in the fridge and get all moldy. No, that’s not the case. What you should do is get the herbs; let’s say you get some basil and you need to just use a few leaves of the basil or maybe one stalk of the basil for the recipe.

With the rest of it, what you want to do is just pick off the leaves and turn it into a nice pesto. So use it ahead of time. Don’t wait for it to get too old or get too limp. What you want to do is pull it all off and then throw it into a bump and grind or a mortar and pestle and, you know, turn into a pesto with some oil and some pine nuts and some parmesan cheese. So that’s a really great way to use up basil, also great to use up arugula.

You can also dry herbs. So here what I’ve done is I’ve bought a bunch of thyme, and there was more than I needed to use. So I took some of the leftover. I just sat it in the sun for a couple of days, and look, it’s gotten beautiful and crispy. And then you can keep this in a jar and use it just as you would when you use dried thyme when you go to your spice cabinet.

Of course, parsley is another one that we kind of – we get a bit of excess with sometimes. So what I like to do is just take the leaves off the actual bunch, break it up, and then I chop it. Even if you don’t need it, just chop it up and put it into an airtight container that’ll last for four or five days in the fridge while it’s chopped. And then next time you’re serving dinner, you’ve got a ready-made garnish ready to go. So you literally, just like that, just chop it up. It takes just seconds. And it’s the difference between throwing half a bunch of parsley in the garbage or having a nice garnish next time you're ready to cook.

Over here I’ve got a little bit of olive oil. Now, I’ve just taken some excess rosemary that would have gone bad, just fold it in half, bruise it a little bit, get a little bit of that beautiful scent out of it, stick it into the olive oil, give it a good stir, leave it in for a day or so, and then you’ve got a rosemary-infused olive oil.

So you needn’t be throwing your herbs in the bin. There’s a million different ways to use them.

I’m Curtis Stone, and that’s your GMC Trade Secret.