Thyme
About Me: Thyme is excellent in bean dishes, soups, and pasta sauces. It has tiny, smoky-green, diamond-shaped leaves with a subtle clove taste. Since the leaves are so small, it’s easiest to cook with whole sprigs; remove them from the pot after cooking.
To store: For short-term storage, stand upright (with stems) in a container with an inch of water. Then cover the herbs loosely with a reused plastic bag and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. To dry, either put in a dehydrator until all moisture has gone, or tie the bunch of thyme with a string and hang it upside down in a cool, dry place until all moisture is gone. Afterwards, you can either keep whole, or blend into a powder.
To freeze: One frozen herb cube is equal to 1 Tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dried herb. Just add a cube when your recipe calls for the herb. To prepare herbs for freezing: Rinse them gently in cool water. Chop the leaves fairly coarsely. Spoon 1 tablespoon of the herb into each compartment of an ice cube tray, add about 1 inch of water to each compartment, and place the tray in the freezer. Remove the frozen herb cubes from the trays and bundle all the cubes in a plastic freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible, seal and store in the freezer for up to a year.
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