Rarely do I find myself using all my cilantro in a bunch before it goes bad. Freezing the cilantro does not preserve the same taste and texture as you would do with meat and some vegetables. However, there are a bunch of marinades, sauces, and dressings that you can combine cilantro with and freeze when you need them. Check out these recipes!
1. Easy Cilantro Lime Chicken
When you want to use your cilantro before it goes bad, a great way is to mix it with the marinade in this delicious chicken recipe. It is easy to cook, very fulfilling, and most important of all? Low cost to make. The ingredients, olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and lime are mostly recipes you can find around your kitchen.
2. Shrimp Tostadas with Lime Cilantro Sauce
For this recipe, freeze the sauce and defrost it when needed. The recipes also calls for fresh cilantro, but I found the frozen cilantro in the sauce is good enough. I love the sauce of this recipe because it uses sour cream and similar to cilantro, I rarely use it all before it goes bad. This “no-cook” recipe is super easy to make, can make 10 servings, and overall is delicious to make. Initially it looks complex with all the ingredients, but you don’t need to do much cooking other than cooking the shrimp if you buy it raw. All you need to do is mix all your ingredients in a bowl with your previously frozen sauce, and very slowly stir in an avocado. Spread over your toasted tortilla and this is a super easy recipe to make whether you are wanting a great dinner, lunch, or even a snack!
3. 5 Ingredient Cilantro Vinaigrette
Just as this recipe says, this is 5 ingredient vinaigrette. What are these 5 ingredients you may ask? Well, you already know one, cilantro. Paired with our cilantro, is garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar. All you will have to do for this recipe is blend all the ingredients up. Then, you have your perfect vinaigrette to go on salads, chicken, tacos, quesadillas, and so much more. It looks like you can put it on anything, and you will have a bomb meal. I like to use this recipe when meal prepping. I’ll freeze them in 1-2oz jars and defrost them in the fridge the night before it’s needed.
4. Cilantro Rice (Vegan Friendly)
Do not get me wrong, regular rice is great, but cilantro rice is looking surprisingly good right now. If you are wanting something healthy and even vegan-friendly, then this is the recipe for you. In just 20 minutes, you can have this 3-step rice on your plate. All you really need is a food processor, skillet, and 8 ingredients. They say it pairs well with burritos and enchiladas, but I’ve used it just as a side dish. Tastes great by itself. Also, just super simple to freeze. I put them in freezer bags or quart containers.
5 Tomato Salsa
Your tortilla chips deserve better than that jank $2 canned salsa. Now, this definitely won’t taste as good as fresh salsa, but it’ll do the job just fine. Personally, this recipe makes a little too much at one time for me so I half everything.
6. Cilantro Lime Dressing
This 5 minute recipe is an extremely versatile one. Do you want a nice salad vinaigrette dressing, or a great dipping sauce for burritos? This sauce can do it all. With this recipe, you can change the consistency of the dressing to match your needs. If you are on a diet, this dressing is light and extremely healthy. Who doesn’t want a healthy, multi-purpose dressing on basically anything you eat? I’ll freeze them in 1-2oz jars and defrost them in the fridge the night before it’s needed.
7. Salsa Verde
Very similar to the tomato salsa above, it’s not going to taste as good as when it’s fresh, but it’s a great alternative to jarred salsa. Another note: I find that sometimes it’ll get chunky after I freeze it and defrost. Don’t worry, it’s still good and will taste the same. Usually a quick stir will do the trick.
8. Classic Falafel
I find that falafel isn’t the easiest thing to make on a weeknight so I make a bunch at one time and then freeze it. I usually freeze them before I’ve cooked them. But you can also freeze them after you fry or bake them. This recipes also only mentions using dried chickpeas, but you can also used canned chickpeas to save some time. However, it’ll end up costing a little more. But it still won’t break your bank.
9. Mezcal Cocktail with Hibiscus and Cilantro
Bet you never thought about putting cilantro in a cocktail, did you? Well, you absolutely can, and the product looks beautiful (and tasty too). While it may not seem like it, cilantro plays a big role in this beverage. No sense in doing all this work for one drink. Might as well make a bunch and freeze it. (I don’t really use cilantro flowers in this recipe, I’ve never found them in grocery stores)
10 Stock. (vegetable, chicken, beef, seafood, etc)
I don’t really think there’s a strict recipe for stock. It’s also truly the best ingredient. Use it for the base of a soup or your favorite stir fry. I keep a bag of all my vegetable scraps, including frozen cilantro, in my freezer. When the bag has enough to fill up about half my stock pot, I make my stock.
