Can You Freeze Chopped Fresh Basil?

Basil is the one fresh herb on this site where the freezer, not the fridge, is actually the safer long-term bet — since refrigeration itself damages basil's leaves, freezing chopped basil in oil, ice-cube-tray style, the same approach used for parsley and cilantro, sidesteps the cold-bruising problem entirely rather than working around it. The oil matters more here than it does for parsley or cilantro, since it also helps prevent the basil from oxidizing and browning in the freezer the way it would exposed to air. What comes out the other side after 6 months is well suited to a cooked pesto or simmered sauce, but basil loses the bright, fresh character that makes it worth using raw either way, whether it goes into the fridge, sits at room temperature too long, or gets frozen.

Because basil bruises and blackens even from cold refrigeration, storing a fresh bunch stems-down in room-temperature water on the counter, rather than in the fridge, is the better move before it's ever chopped or frozen — this keeps it in better condition for longer than refrigerating it would, buying a few extra days before the freezer becomes the only remaining option.

Purple or Thai basil varieties, less common than the standard sweet basil most recipes call for, are more delicate still and bruise even more readily from cold — the room-temperature, stems-in-water storage this site recommends for basil matters even more for these more fragile varieties than for standard sweet basil.

See Chopped Fresh Basil's full storage & shelf-life guide →