Basil I have found to be one of the trickier herbs to preserve by drying. It is fragile and has a tendency to mold, turn black or lose all flavor and taste like ash! There are so many times I have wasted a good batch of basil harvest to poor drying results… Blegh! So here is the most reliable way that I have found to dehydrate basil:
- Wash your basil in cool water and pat dry very gently with a tea towel. Do not let the basil sit around to air dry (it will wilt) and do not dry it with the towel too vigorously (it will get bruised). Just pat until mostly dry.
- Move quickly from your soft drying towels to your dehydrator. Don’t even bother removing from branches. Use a forced-air dehydrator at the lowest heat setting. (Too warm and you will lose the flavor, no heat and you may find your basil turning black or molding, even with the forced air!)
- Dry your basil over night. Check it in the morning and make sure none of it is still rubbery. If it is, continue drying and checking every couple of hours. Once the basil is dry, it will be crispy, and will be a color that you would expect. (Green for sweet basil, darker color for purple or Thai basil.) It should still smell like basil when crushed. If it has no smell, maybe it dried too long and might taste like ash.
- For best flavor, store the leaves whole (you can remove them from the branches for storage) and crush when you want to use them. Keeping them whole preserves the flavor better. If you expect to use your basil within just a little while, go ahead and store it crushed.
Want to enjoy fresh basil all winter long? Try growing a plant in a brightly lit window in your home! They grow slower than they do in the garden, but they will do fine and you will love the special treat of fresh basil in the middle of February. 🙂
Enjoy your basil!