How to save limp herbs

What can I do with herbs that are past their best?
Joe, by email
Happily, Joe and his on-the-turn herbs aren’t short of options. “The obvious choice for hard herbs is to chuck them in a sandwich bag and freeze them for future stock-making,” says Alice Norman, founder of regenerative bakery Pinch in Suffolk. Alternatively, Sami Tamimi, author of Boustany, would be inclined to dry his excess herbs. In summer, he’d simply pop them on a tray and put them outside in the sun, but right now he “dries them in a 60-70C oven, then packs in containers, ready for the next time you’re short of fresh herbs”.

Norman’s current MO is to blitz languishing herbs (“rosemary and/or thyme work best”) with a 3:4 ratio of fine salt. “You don’t want too many herbs, because that will throw off the moisture content and turn the mix black, but you need enough for the blades to catch and break down the rosemary properly.” Pulse until fine, then store in an airtight jar in the fridge (where it’ll keep for a month or so). “That can be used for so many things, from seasoning game to roast potatoes, and it works particularly well in bread.” To which end, take any focaccia recipe, boost it with mashed potato and replace the required salt with the herby salt: “The potato helps retain moisture, while the rosemary salt adds fragrance.”

An even easier route for past-their-best herbs, Tamimi says, is to get them in a chilled yoghurt soup, or any yoghurty dip, really. In a similar vein, Ethan Pack, head chef at Three Sheets in Soho, London, puts them to work in hummus, though purists had better look away now. “Make a herb oil first and use that in the base of the hummus, or blitz the herbs with the chickpeas, tahini, etc,” he says. “If I’m feeling fancy, I might also use the herbs to make a compound butter or fridge-raid chimichurri.”

Joe could also keep sad herbs sweet by using them to infuse cream. If you have thyme – or, even better, lemon thyme – Norman suggests trying this: “Warm cream until it’s gently steaming, then add the thyme, though remember that a small bunch goes a long way.” Turn off the heat, cover, leave to infuse for an hour or two, then strain and discard the solids. “Chill the cream, then, to serve, whip softly with golden icing sugar – that pairs beautifully with a rhubarb and apple cobbler, for instance.”

Don’t let those stalks go to waste, either. For Norman dill and tarragon stems are especially golden. “I keep a bottle of vinegar for each herb in the fridge, and top them up with the stems as I go – just make sure the vinegar covers them.” Give the dill vinegar a whirl in tzatziki, say, and the tarragon version in a béarnaise. If you want to get a bit cheffy, Norman says, turn parsley stalks into fake “capers”: “Dissolve 40g fine salt in 500ml water, cool completely, then add parsley stalks chopped to roughly the size of small capers.” Get that in the fridge quick-smart and it’ll be good to go in a couple of days, ready to bring “a bright tang to anything that needs a lift”. And we could all do with a bit of that right now.

The Guardian