How do you preserve basil? Add it to store-bought vegan butter and freeze it. This infused vegan butter will last for months. Use it in pasta or appetizers
Do you find your fresh basil going limp or about to die? You spent a fortune on it or your friend gave you a whole bunch of it from their garden. You would hate to see it go to waste.
I found that the best way to preserve basil is to infuse it in store bought vegan butter and use it when I need.
The best part is that this butter will last for months and your recipes will always have the aroma of fresh basil.
I bought this recipe for my angel hair pomodoro because basil and tomatoes were meant to be together forever. But, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to use up the whole recipe.
“What to do, what to do with all these basil?” I kept asking myself?
Then, I remembered that Martha Stewart had a butter recipe using basil and loved it. I took her idea and turned it into a vegan recipe with a few added ingredients.
Voila!
I had the perfect butter recipe ever!
You know that I am a huge fan of Earth Balance’s vegan butter. There is always a stick or two sitting in my fridge. I even used it recently in my colcannon recipe which turned out to be delish!
One of the added ingredient was roasted garlic. I always use tons of garlic in my Italian recipes because it wouldn’t be Italian without it. Remember my pizza sauce recipe with tons of garlic?
Lime is the real hero in this recipe. It brings all the ingredients together and adds a delicious tang to the butter. Can you imagine how great your pasta recipe will taste because of this lime?
Put this in your pasta and I guarantee you that it will be the best pasta recipe you have ever made.
Do you love vegan butter as much as I do?
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How To Preserve Basil? Infuse it into vegan butter
How do you preserve fresh basil? Infuse it in vegan butter and refrigerate up to 6 months. Use other herbs, garlic and lime juice + zest to enhance the flavor
Prepare: remove 1 + 1/2 vegan butter sticks from the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature
1) Take 2 cloves of garlic and slice them thinly
2) Add 1/4 tsp of coconut oil to these garlic and mix well. Coconut butter is better for roasting garlic in this recipe because it freezes better than olive oil
3) Place the garlic on a baking tray and roast in your mini oven. Roast until they are light brown. Mini ovens are different for everyone, so, choose a lower temperature like 200°.
4) While the garlic is roasting, cut the stalks off from 8 leaves of basil. Chop the basil as finely as you can
5) Take half of a lime and juice it. Set aside
6) In a mini processor, add the chopped basil, roasted garlic, lime juice, 1 Tbsp of dried oregano, 1 Tbsp of parsley and the vegan butter. You can slice the butter into smaller pieces to make it easier to add into the processor
7) Blend on low speed until everything is blended. It will have a creamy consistency and that’s ok.
8) Cut a long piece of parchment paper. Transfer the basil infused butter to the parchment. Make a log shape, but, it doesn’t have to be a perfect log shape
9) If the butter is too creamy to roll, put the parchment paper and butter into the freezer for a few minutes
10) Remove it and roll it into a log and place it in the freezer for about two hours
Personally, I like leaving it in the parchment paper and in the freezer. It is very easy to melt pieces of it when I need it.
Note: Do not add salt to the butter because the recipe it will be used in will have its own salt requirement
Basil and Lime Infused Vegan Butter
Ingredients
- 1.5 sticks vegan butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp coconut oil
- 8 leaves basil fresh
- 1/2 lime
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 1 Tbsp oregano dried
- 1 Tbsp parsley dried
Instructions
Prepare: remove 1 + 1/2 vegan butter sticks from the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature
- Take 2 cloves of garlic and slice them thinly
- Add 1/4 tsp of coconut oil to these garlic and mix well. Coconut butter is better for roasting garlic in this recipe because it freezes better than olive oil
- Place the garlic on a baking tray and roast in your mini oven. Roast until they are light brown. Mini ovens are different for everyone, so, choose a lower temperature like 200°
- While the garlic is roasting, cut the stalks off from 8 leaves of basil. Chop the basil as finely as you can
- Juice 1/2 of a lime and set aside
- In a mini processor, add the chopped basil, roasted garlic, lime juice, 1 Tbsp of dried oregano, 1 Tbsp of parsley and the vegan butter. You can slice the butter into smaller pieces to make it easier to add into the processor
- Blend on low speed until everything is blended. It will have a creamy consistency and that's ok
- Cut a long piece of parchment paper. Transfer the basil infused butter to the parchment. Make a log shape, but, it doesn't have to be a perfect log shape
- If the butter is too creamy to roll, put the parchment paper and butter into the freezer for a few minutes
- Remove it and roll it into a log and place it in the freezer for about two hours
Whitney Bond says
Can’t wait to try this!
Alyssa Mosher says
Looks great! I need to try this for my next party!
Megan @ MegUnprocessed says
That sounds amazing! Great flavor combo!