How To Keep Curry Leaves Fresh For Longer

If you wonder how to keep curry leaves fresh for longer time than a week (which they usually last) read for useful tips and suggestions which you can try at your home.

Curry leaves are very aromatic and fresh curry leaves are used in a lot of South Indian recipes.

In many South Indian recipes, curry leaves are grind along with coconut to make the dish so delicious and flavorful and also the curry leaves are added while the seasoning is made for curry, rice dishes, chutney etc.

The addition of curry leaves easily add much flavor to the dish and make it more yummy and they are very commonly used in Indian cuisine. So if you like Indian foods, you might want to know how to store them fresh.

If you have never tried curry leaves, just add a few fresh leaves to any curry or rice dishes and see if you like the flavor of it!

If you have a curry leaf plant in your home, it is more easy to have fresh curry leaves as you need it.

However if you are buying curry leaves from store, you may notice that the curry leaves may not remain fresh for so long and start to fade after a few days (even if they fade in color or if you are using dried leaves, they are still good and flavorful but fresh curry leaves are the best with the most flavor!).

So here are few tips which will help you to keep the curry leaves fresher for longer (definitely more than a week).

how to keep curry leaves fresh for longer - helpful tips to store fresh curry leaves

The best way to keep curry leaves fresher for loner time is to store the fresh leaves (after making sure there is no water content in the leaves, if there is any you can pat dry the leaves using a paper towel) in an air tight food container or glass jar and keep it inside the refrigerator, and make sure there is no moisture content inside the jar of container you are using to keep the leaves.

See my post here on how to keep lettuce leaves fresh and crisp for more ideas on keeping fresh leaves for longer time.

Just like as I recommended in the above post for storing lettuce fresh, you may use a good quality lettuce keeper or salad storage container to keep edible leaves fresher for longer time.

As you need the leaves for cooking, you can take a few leaves, wash them clean using fresh water and pat dry using paper towels (if you add the leaves with the water to the oil, the hot oil may splash), and use the dry fresh leaves for cooking.

As long as you keep the fresh curry leaves in airtight containers or jars without any contact with moisture they

Instead of using an airtight food container or jar, you may also keep the leaves in a ziploc bag and store inside the refrigerator (without any contact with moisture) and use them as needed.

If you want to keep the fresh curry leaves for more longer time, you may freeze the fresh curry leaves by using good quality freezer bags.

Without washing the leaves, just store the curry leaves in a freezer safe bag and keep this in the freezer section of your fridge and it will last longer.

Take few leaves as needed for cooking, and wash the leaves just before using. To make it easier you can also keep the leaves in freezer safe bags with multiple compartments where you can keep them separately as different portions, which will make it easier to access later.

If you have a lot of curry leaves, you may also sun dry the leaves and store the dried leaves in air tight containers for preserving the leaves for a longer time which will still be good for culinary uses.

In that case, I recommend washing and cleaning the leaves thoroughly, then dry in the hot sun for at least a couple of days or until the leaves are dried well so they will break if you squeeze them and then store them in an airtight container, preferably in the refrigerator if you wish to store them for longer time.

Instead of storing the dried whole leaves, you may also make curry leaf powder with the dried leaves by processing them using a food processor (without any water or moisture content) and store the homemade curry leaf powder in airtight food containers or jars and store it in the refrigerator.

You can add the curry leaf powders in curry or chutneys as needed.

If there are more recommendations or helpful tips on storing curry leaves for  a longer time, I would appreciate any suggestions in the comment section!

Hope you found this post on how to keep curry leaves fresh for longer helpful in storing the curry leaves fresher for a longer time!