How To Dry Herbs in the Microwave
If you find yourself with an abundance of fresh herbs, you can try drying them in the microwave for future use in recipes.
Equipment:
- Paper Toweling
- Paper Plate (or other microwave-safe plate)
Ingredients:
- Fresh herbs of your choice (I used basil and dill)
Instructions:
- Put a couple layers of paper toweling on a microwave-safe plate, or on a paper plate. Place the clean and dry leaves of your herb in a single layer on the plate. Place another piece of paper toweling over the top. (The paper toweling will help wick away the moisture as you are drying the herbs).
- Microwave for one minute. After this first minute you should see that the herbs are starting to get a little drier and smaller, but are still not crumbly. You may wish to adjust them around on the plate a bit if needed after this first minute too.
- Microwave for an additional one minute. After this second minute your herbs should be much drier and you may be able to stop at this point. I did an additional 20 seconds and after that I was satisfied that they were dry enough. If you feel still more is needed, just do additional 20 second bursts as necessary.
- Once the herbs are dried, you can easily just crumble them with your fingers into small pieces.
- Store your dried herbs in a small jar for future use.
Notes:
The timing that worked the best for me was: 1 Minute - - 1 Minute - - 20 seconds.
If you wish to go a little slower when you dry your herbs, especially if things look pretty dry after your first minute, you can check things more often by starting with one minute, and then keep doing 15 to 30 second bursts after that until you feel the drying process is complete.