Rather than chop parsley and garlic each time a recipe call for them, you can prepare some in advance and have it ready-to-use in the refrigerator when you need it.
1 bunch | Italian parsley, fresh | 100 g | |
3 cloves | garlic | ||
2/3 cup | olive oil (enough to cover) | 140 mL |
A small food processor will be very useful to chop the ingredients.
Only the parsley leaves are used, since the stems are too hard. Wash and spin-dry the leaves. Finely chop them together with the garlic cloves. Put this mixture into a glass jar, cover with a layer of oil to prevent air oxidation, then put the lid on. (The oil quantity indicated below is for reference only). Put the jar in the refrigerator.
Important: Never let the jar stand at room temperature, to prevent any risk of food poisoning.
Can be stored in the refrigerator up to 1 month; 3 months in the freezer. Remember to top up with oil every time you use it, to prevent oxidation and mould formation.
Finally a use for the big lot of parsley growing in my garden. This made a great addition to my chicken marinade. easy to prepare in a mini food processor.
It's a great base, but I made the mistake of not pressing the parsley in the jar resulting in a lot of space that I had to use a lot of oil to fill, making all the recipes I made with the base too oily. Next time I will make sure to remove any air trapped to avoid having the parsley floating over the oil (instead of staying under it) as I pour it in.
This is a great time saver and also avoids wasting parsley when you buy a bunch and don’t use it all up. I tend to freeze mine, either in ‘blobs’ on a baking sheet, or in a dedicated ice cube tray (avoids garlic taste transferring to future ice cubes!) and then transferred to a bag once solid. In a pinch I have also frozen it as a flat layer in a freezer bag, then broken/sawn off chunks with a serrated knife as required. Either way, it adds instant depth of flavour to so many dishes - highly recommended.