John Myers
Herbal salt gives salads, soups, vegetable dishes, and meat a unique aroma. Our tip: Don’t buy the spiced salt, just make it yourself. So you can create exactly the herbal mixture that tastes best to you.
Herbal salt should not be missing in any kitchen: you can basically use it to season, refine or round off the taste of all dishes. If you make herb salt yourself, you can use your favorite herbs and conjure up your own spice mixes to suit the dish.
Make herbal salt yourself: fresh herbs or dried ones?
If you want to use fresh herbs from the market or garden, you should dry them carefully beforehand. Otherwise, the moisture in the plants can cause the salt to clump easily.
Fresh herbs can also shorten shelf life. With dried herbs, on the other hand, the mixture will keep for up to a year if you store it in a dark, cool, and dry place.
To dry the fresh herbs, it is best to place them in the oven and let them dry for 20 to 25 minutes at 40 degrees. Alternatively, you can spread the herbs out on a cloth in a shady, dry place and let them dry there. You need a bit of patience for this, however, as it can take up to two days to dry.
Homemade herbal salt: You need these ingredients
For your own spiced salt, you can combine your favorite herbs with conventional salt. Expensive special varieties such as Himalayan salt or fleur de sel are not necessary, as the herbs provide a special taste.
- For 100 grams of herbal salt you need 80 grams of salt and 20 grams of herbs, explains the Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE).
- A classic herbal salt mixture consists of Mediterranean herbs such as thyme, rosemary, oregano, or sage. The combination goes well with baked potatoes, soups, and pasta sauces, for example.
- If you like it a little more unusual, you can use wild herbs such as groundweed, ground ivy, and dead nettle. Or refine the salt with edible flowers. For example, cornflower, chicory, and speedwell color the mixture bluish.
- Dill, chervil, and lemon zest are particularly good for flavoring fish. Oregano, basil, and garlic go well with pizza.
Our tip: Less is more with your own herbal salt. If you use too many components, the individual aromas no longer come into their own.
Preparation of the herbal salt
And this is how it works: Do not use hard stalks of the herbs. Crush the rest with a mortar, grinder, or in a food processor, and mix the ground herbs with the salt.
Finally, pour the seasoning mixture into a screw-top jar. Beautifully packaged, the herbal salt is also ideal as a souvenir or small gift.
