Dill is quite a unique herb. There aren’t many natural ingredients that provide such an aniseed hit. But that means you often only need a pinch of it to add a hit of flavour to your dish. So, what do you do with all the leftovers?
Can You Freeze Dill?
Yes, you can freeze dill for up to 6 months. To freeze dill, you can either freeze it on its own in a freezer bag or freeze them in ice cubes with other herbs that can be added to a variety of dishes.
Do Does Dill freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Dill? Yes
How to Freeze Dill
This is the approach to take if you’re pushed for time – it’s not the best method, however. Like many soft herbs such as parsley, dill will lose its texture when frozen, so it’s not something you’ll be using for garnishing dishes or eating raw.
Instead, you’ll only want to use it to impart some aniseed flavour to your next dish.
- Clean: Take your dill stalks and give them a quick clean. You can run them under cold water, but you will need to ensure they are completely dry.
- Bag Up: Once dry, place your dill into a resealable bag. Seal it up, squeezing as much of the air out as possible.
- Freeze: Place the bag in the freezer.
How to Freeze Dill in Ice Cubes
This is a far better approach to take when it comes to freezing dill. It’s more useable and gives you more versatility:
- Prep Dill: First, you need to prepare your dill. To do this, remove the fronds from the stems, then finely dice them up.
- Fill an Ice Cube Tray: Grab an ice cube tray and place your dill into each slot. You’ll want to fill it around 50% of the way up. Top it up with water (or olive oil) and then wrap the tray in clingfilm before placing it into the freezer.
- Bag Up: Once the cubes have frozen solid, pop them out of the tray and into a freezer-safe bag.
- Final Freeze: Place the bag back into the freezer.
You now have a ready-to-go supply of ice cubes packed full of aniseed flavour. Don’t be afraid to pimp these cubes up a little, either. You can try grating in a little lemon zest, adding a spoonful of mustard or mixing with other herbs such as mint.
3 Tips for Freezing Dill
Now you know how to freeze dill in a couple of ways, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing them to have the best results:
Avoid Freezing on its Own
If possible, avoid freezing dill as leaves on their own in a bag. They’re very delicate, and you’ll find they won’t freeze well. Instead, try freezing in cubes which can be mixed with other herbs, spices and flavourings.
Try Making Butter
Herb butter freezes well, which is why it’s a great way to store dill in the freezer. Mix soft butter with a handful of dill then, using cling film, roll into a log and freeze.
Use Cooked
You won’t want to use your dill raw or as a garnish as it will have lost its texture. Instead, only use frozen dill for its flavour.
How Long Can You Freeze Dill?
Dill will keep in the freezer in either form for around 6 months. As with all soft herbs, the flavour will degrade with time, so the quicker you can use them, the better. 6 months would be the maximum that you’ll want to keep in the freezer.
As always, you should use labels on the bags to state the contents (you’d be surprised how many green herb cubes you end up with) and the date in which they need to be used.
Dill will last in the fridge for around 2 weeks. You can wrap the stems in a damp kitchen towel to keep them vibrant. After 2 weeks, they will become limp and lose their potent flavour.
How Do You Defrost Dill?
Because dill is so delicate and thin, you don’t need to defrost it. If you’re using whole dill stems, then you can toss these into your dish. If you’re using the ice cubes, you need to toss this into your dish again.
Let’s assume you’re doing boiled potatoes and know how well dill goes with them. You need to cook your potatoes as you normally would.
Drain them and then add in your cube of dill with a little butter and stir over a very low heat until it has thawed and coated your potatoes. Easy!
Can You Refreeze Dill?
Dill is a very sensitive, soft herb with a very delicate flavour. Freezing it once is already risky and can instantly degrade the flavour.
Refreezing it will make it even worse, so it’s not something we would advise doing if it can be helped.
Does Dill Freeze Well?
In terms of flavour, dill does freeze well. It will work wonders if you want to add that fabulous and unique dill flavour to a cooked dish. Where it falls flat is in its texture and look.
There is a chance that it will become mushy and dark green to brown.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing dill or dill in general, then these may help:
Why would you want to? Dill pickles will last in a mason jar for a year or two if kept submerged and sealed. There would be no advantage to freezing them.
Dill sauce can be frozen into ice cubes. Be warned, however, that if it has been made with dairy then the texture will become quite grainy. As it defrosts, the fats will split from the liquid.
