How to Dry Curry Leaves Naturally without Sunlight,Oven or Microwave

If you have a good bounty of curry leaves and want to store it for future use, this is a great method as it does not require any sunlight, oven or microwave. Just let the leaves air dry till they are crisp and store! that’s it! The leaves stay flavorful and green and can be used in all dishes that require fresh curry leaves.

Living in the US, curry leaves are not easily available, specially if you live in a small town with no Indian grocery store. A lot of us do manage to grow a curry leaf plant and nurture it like a baby, but come winter the plant dries up and so does our supply of curry leaves. I love to make Miracle oil for Hair Loss and Frizziness and Miracle Hair Oil to Prevent Premature Graying of hair,  for my hair whenever I get a good stash of curry leaves.

I was fortunate to get a huge bounty from a friend and dried it. In the below picture you can see my dried curry leaves from 6 months back(the one in the smaller jar) and the new batch in the larger jar. As you can see the color and look of the new batch of dried curry leaves is just a little brighter.

Some other recipes that make my life easy in the kitchen and cooking a snap are-

How to Freeze Minced Garlic,

How to Freeze Minced Ginger,

How to Clean Burnt Pots and Pans,

How to Fry/Saute and Freeze Onions for Indian Cooking and

How to Clean Silver Without Any Chemicals.

Here is the written recipe followed by the step by step pictorial one-

How to Dry Curry Leaves Naturally without Sunlight,Oven or Microwave

Aanchal Gupta

With winter around the corner, its a good time to break the curry leaves from our curry plant and dry them so we have a steady supply of curry leaves during the winter months. This method does not require sunlight,oven or microwave.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 5 minutes mins

Course Vegetables and Greens

Cuisine Asian, Indian

Servings 4 cups

Equipment

• 1 paper towel
• 1 old newspaper

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• Curry leaves

Instructions

 

• Remove the curry leaves from the stems
• Take a wad of newspaper and put some paper towels on the newspaper
• Place the curry leaves on the paper towel in a single layer and leave on a table/countertop to air dry
• After 12 hours,move the curry leaves on the paper towel and let them air dry for another 12 hours
• It took me 36 hours to get them to be dry,crisp and crunchy
• Store in a clean,air tight bottle at room temperature

Notes

It took me approx 36 hours in an air-conditioned room with no fan on. It might take less time in a country with hot climate or longer in a humid environment. Keep it to air dry for a few hours longer if you think its not dry enough.You can place under a fan but its not required.You can refrigerate the dried curry leaves but its not needed. For 6 months the leaves stay green and bright.After 6 months some leaves might start turning a little dark.I do not wash the curry leaves before drying and storing as I feel it takes longer to dry and may not be as green and vibrant looking.

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Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-

Remove leaves from the stems

Place the leaves on a thick wad of newspaper and place some clean paper towel on top of the newspaper.

Put the leaves on top of the paper towels

After 6 hours

Shift /shuffle the leaves on the paper towel so they dry evenly

After 24 hours

After 36 hours

Store in a dry air tight glass container for upto 6 months