Preserving Herbs | Freezing Sage

Freezing Sage - Did you know that you can freeze sage?  Freezing herbs is one of the easiest way to use fresh herbs all winter long.  Not all herbs freeze well, but sage does!

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Growing and Preserving Sage

I love growing sage in my herb garden.  The only problem is that most of the recipes that I use it in are fall/winter recipes.  It just seems to lend itself more to warm comforting dishes more that the light dishes of summer.

I knew that it was possible to dry sage, but I was looking into different ways to preserve sage.   I think sage would also be good in an herb salt, don't you?

Freezing Sage

So, I set about looking for ways to preserve my whole sage leaves in an attractive manner.  Turns out you can just freeze them whole!

The first thing you need to do is harvest your sage.  I always try to leave about 6 inches of plant left with a few leaves so that if we stay warm enough, I might get a second harvest.

Then wash them to get rid of any bugs and dirt and then spin them dry or blot to remove the water.  Remove all bruised and browned leaves and place them in a ziploc bag or if you have a FoodSaver (my most loved kitchen gadget!) place them in their bags.  Remove all the air and seal.

Substituting Fresh Sage for Dried

Now, I will have lovely fresh sage leaves all winter long!    If your recipe calls for dried sage, most sites say to use 7 fresh leaves for 1 teaspoon of dried sage.  Of course, it all depends on the size of your leaves.

A better way to substitute is to remember that you usually use 3 times the amount of fresh as dried.  So, if your recipe calls for a tablespoon of dried sage, you would need 3 tablespoons of fresh sage.  Fresh sage has a more mild flavor than dried.

You might want to use that sage in:

This Roasted Cauliflower, Sage and Almond Risotto is pure comfort food.

Everyone loves these Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with Leeks and Sausage!