Does your cilantro plant provide a harvest surplus of fresh leaves? Then you have the choice to keep it fresh for 2 weeks or to preserve it for many months. How it works in detail, we explain here.
Keep cilantro fresh in the refrigerator
Sometimes the leaves and shoots are to be harvested, although there is no current need in the kitchen yet. This is the case when the flowering is to be stopped. You can easily keep the fresh harvest fresh in the refrigerator for 7 to 14 days. This is how you do it correctly:
- shorten the shoots in the lower part by 2 to 2.5 cm with a knife
- place them in bunches in a glass with water
- put a plastic bag over them to reduce evaporation
- change the water every few days
The coriander is washed just before consumption. This little trick preserves the aroma a little longer.
Preserving cilantro by air drying – this is how to do it.
Air is the most natural way to preserve cilantro. When dried, the leaves and shoots can be kept for at least 6 months. Read below how uncomplicated the method works:
- Wash fresh cilantro sprigs and pat dry with paper towels.
- tie the stems together to form a small bundle
- hang upside down in the airy attic
Preserve herb for 12 months by freezing.
Freezing herbs is always fraught with the shortcoming that the leaves will pop together after thawing. The following trick shows how to remove frozen cilantro shoots from the freezer one at a time:
- cut the shoots off close to the base, wash and dry them on kitchen paper
- spread them out side by side on a baking tray
- pre-freeze in the quick freezer for 30 minutes
- Then transfer the hard-frozen cilantro sprigs to a freezer container or sturdy plastic bag. Over the next 12 months, remove individual shoots as needed without them sticking together in the freezer.
Tips & Tricks
You can preserve and prepare cilantro in one go. To do this, put the washed leaves in a food processor. While the herb is chopping, drizzle olive oil into it. Once the delicate paste has reached the desired consistency, pour it into small glass containers to store in the refrigerator.
