Gordon Ramsay's Brilliant Tip For Keeping Herbs Fresh Longer

We've all been there: grabbing a massive bunch of herbs at the store with all the best intentions and exciting recipes in mind, only to later find it wilting in the fridge. But thanks to Gordon Ramsay's hack for keeping herbs fresh, you can let this be a problem of the past. Simply treat your herbs like you would a bunch of flowers: snip the stems, pop the bunch in a glass of water, and put it all in the fridge.

This simple trick will help keep your herbs fresh for a week, sometimes even longer. It works especially well for tender, soft-stemmed herbs like parsley, cilantro, and dill. (While this trick also works for basil, it prefers to be kept at room temperature; for best results, don't put it in the fridge.) You could even go a step further and cover the top with a plastic bag to create a little greenhouse effect in the fridge, but even without doing that, this "flower" method is a fantastic upgrade to just throwing your herbs in the vegetable crisper and hoping for the best.

This clever little trick helps solve the eternal question of what to do with fresh herbs before they spoil. Because if they're standing tall and staying fresh for longer, you've got even more time to get creative with them — or at very least remember they're there before they've all gone to mush!

Keeping herbs alive is a great first step, but knowing how to use them when you have them is just as important. A lot of people don't actually know when to use fresh herbs versus dried herbs, and it's really easy to learn, so you seem like a pro in the kitchen. Adding dried dill to a tzatziki or dried basil to a Caprese salad? Definitely not, thanks. The general rule is that dried herbs are for long-cooked dishes such as soups and stews where they've got time to soften and let their flavor really sink in, whereas fresh herbs are for dishes where the herbs are either barely cooked or not cooked at all, such as pesto, chimichurri, salsa verde, and salads.

And if you're getting right to the end of your herb's natural lifespan and you still have a glut, then use Gordon Ramsay's other herb-saving method, which is to chop them up, mix them into butter with a little salt, and freeze them. For a dairy-free alternative, you can use the same method but with olive oil. You can then keep it frozen in an ice cube tray for ultimate convenience. When it's time to cook, simply pop out a little square of herbs and oil or butter, and you're ready to rock and roll.