Drying Parsley

grandmakip52, May 16, 7:05am
Hubby has heaps of parsley and wants me to dry it. Please help me with your ideas.

cookessentials, May 16, 7:08am
If you have a dehydrator, that would be the best way to help it keep it's colour. Or I guess you could spread it onto a tray and dry it in a very low oven.

nanasee1, May 16, 8:11am
I wash it & shake well to remove as much water as possible, then roll it in a clean tea towel to remove any excess. I then cut it into small sprigs & dry on a paper towel covered rack in the microwave on high. The time depends on the amount but start at 4 minutes & check every minute after that. When it looks ready take out of the microwave & allow to completely. If it crushes easily between your fingers it is ready, if not put it back & continue to dry it. When dried & cold put into a glass jar with an airtight lid & it will keep in the back of the pantry for about 6 months.

korbo, May 16, 8:45am
instead of drying, just pick fresh and pop into a plastic bag and put in freezer. then when you want some take it out... . I have a bag in there all the time.

lythande1, May 16, 8:10pm
I wouldn't, dried doesn't keep it's flavour well. Freeze it instead.

kirinesha, May 16, 8:12pm
Freezing is brilliant...

antoniab, May 17, 5:01am
Yeah I chop mine up and put it in ice cube trays in the freezer then pop them into a snap lock bag when frozen - about a Tbsp per ice cube.

jag5, May 18, 12:33am
I chop and pop into marg or similar containers in freezer. Just take out what you need when you need it, still a brilliant green and good as gold.

245sam, May 18, 12:52am
I absolutely agree with #4, #5, #6, #7, #8 above - previously frozen is sooo much better than dried parsley for both colour and flavour, in fact just as good IMO as fresh but a whole lot more convenient - for chopped parsley that is and sprigs for use in stocks, etc. but obviously not for decorative sprigs. :-))

mackenzie2, May 18, 1:19am
Yip I freeze mine as well, I freeze lots of herbs, rosemary etc are perfect straight out of freezer

245sam, May 14, 5:57pm
mackenzie2, thanks for that - your posting is very timely as I have never frozen rosemary - I've never needed to as I've got and always had it there to use as freshly picked rosemary - but we NEED to do something re our rampant rosemary that is taking possession of our pathway so we have been contemplating freezing some so as to have it to use while we wait for a currently-in-a-pot seedling from the rampant one to grow then we'll plant it and meanwhile the rampant plant will be disposed of.

The 'rampant rosemary' is about 25 years old and has amazed us as we kept it in a pot for about its first 10 years and it never really grew so it was about to be disposed of then, when we thought we had nothing to lose by trying to plant the then little runt of a plant in the garden to give it its last chance. Well... . that miserable looking little plant has never looked back and it is now the rampant one - it was obviously looking to be set free from the confines of a pot! ! :-))