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Can You Freeze Curry Leaves?

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By Ross Young

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One of the quickest and easiest ways to give your homemade curry that authentic flavour is with the use of curry leaves. The problem is that when you use them, you only need one or two but you end up buying a handful.

Can You Freeze Curry Leaves?

Yes, you can freeze curry leaves for up to 12 months. Place curry leaves into a freezer bag, seal and place them into the freezer. The good news is that you don’t need to defrost curry leaves to use them.

Do Curry Leaves Freeze Well? Yes

Can You Refreeze Curry Leaves? No

How To Freeze Curry Leaves

One of the most important things to consider is what you freeze your curry leaves in. They can be pretty pungent so if not stored correctly can cause the rest of your freezer to take on the odour of curry.

You probably don’t want curry-scented ice cubes, do you? That’s why investing in some thick freezer bags is a good idea.

  1. Bag Up: Grab your thick freezer bags and place your curry leaves into the bag.
  2. Seal: Seal the bag up and, as you do, squeeze out as much of the air as you can. If you cannot remove the air sufficiently, try using a straw in the corner of a freezer bag to suck the air out before sealing. 
  3. Label and Freeze: Finally, label the bag up and then place it into the freezer.

3 Tips for Freezing Curry Leaves

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing curry leaves to have the best results:

Label Them
If you have frozen bay leaves, kaffir lime leaves and curry leaves, then, once frozen, it can be quite challenging to distinguish between different leaf types. This is why it’s a good idea to clearly label the bag with curry leaves

Use Quality Bags
You do not want to pollute your freezer with the smell of curry so make sure you use a good-quality freezer bag. You could even use an airtight container if you’re worried. 

Don’t Defrost
If you want to impart that notorious curry flavour into your cooking then grab a leaf or two and pop them into your cooking. You don’t need to let them defrost as they’ll thaw almost instantly when you add them to the pan you’re cooking in. 

How Long Can You Freeze Curry Leaves?

Curry leaves will maintain their strong, curry flavour for up to a year in the freezer. Beyond this point, they will remain perfectly safe to use if stored correctly but may become slightly milder.

This can, of course, be rectified by simply using an extra leaf to ensure you get that punchy flavour.

Labelling your curry leaves when they’re in the freezer with the date on which they need to be used is a good idea.

Not only will this help you to avoid wastage but will also make it far easier to distinguish between curry, bay and kaffir lime leaves, all of which you may have in the freezer.

How Long Do Curry Leaves Last in the Fridge?

Fresh curry leaves will keep for around 2 weeks in the fridge before they begin to turn black and lose their aroma. Dried curry leaves will obviously keep for months and months.

How Do You Defrost Curry Leaves?

Well… You don’t actually need to.

The good news with curry leaves is that you can take them out of the freezer and toss them directly into the dish you’re cooking. They are very thin which means they defrost almost as soon as they hit the heated pan.

Can You Refreeze Curry Leaves?

This is not something we recommend you do.

Every time you refreeze them, there’s a chance you’ll degrade the flavour. Over time, you’ll find your curry leaves are bland and, therefore, useless.

The good news is that you don’t need to defrost curry leaves to use them so it would be challenging to accidentally defrost to many.

Do Curry Leaves Freeze Well?

Curry leaves, like a lot of other leaves such as kaffir lime leaves, freeze particularly well. As you tend not to eat them, even if the texture changes it doesn’t matter. What freezing does is lock in the strong curry flavour so that you can use them at a later date.

If the whole reason for using curry leaves is to give your cooking that authentic curry flavour then freezing them is actually a no-brainer.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing curry leaves or curry leaves in general, then these may help:

How Do You Use Frozen Curry Leaves?

If you want to give your cooking that authentic Indian flavour then just grab a leaf from the freezer and pop it into the pot. There’s no need to thaw it beforehand!

Sources

We have verified the information on this page using the following resources:

Masterclass

Piping Hot Curry

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