Tuscan Herb Salt

Tuscan Herb Salt preserves the flavor of summer

I utilize a lot of ways to save all that we grow through the summer. Canning, freezing, pickling, fermenting and dehydrating all serve to hold on to the flavor and nutrition of the things we grow. Tuscan Herb Salt is a way to preserve the bright freshness of summer herbs. Not to mention garlic!

Growing herbs to preserve them is a great idea

As I have mentioned lately here on the blog and on social media, I like to keep some pots of herbs growing on the sunny parts of our front porch. This keeps them close by to add to whatever I am cooking, but they’re very happy there and reward me with enough to save for winter too.

Like anything you make or grow yourself, you know what you’re getting

There are plenty of ways to preserve summer herbs. I dehydrate a lot of them every year. This saves me some money at the grocery store [organic herbs are expensive and you don’t want to think about where the regular ones might be coming from!], but the flavor is also much better , if you do things the right way. I have this dehydrator, which is just a cheapy, but serves us well enough. It does produce very fine dried herbs and I use it for that a lot.

SALT HELPS HANG ON TO MORE FLAVOR

But adding salt brings things to a whole other level. The flavor of the herbs in this mix isn’t just preserved,, it’s actually intensified. The period of time after the herbs and salt are combined allows the salt to actually absorb a lot of the volatile compounds and oils from the herbs. Regular dehydration allows some of that to dissipate into the air and be lost, along with some of the flavor.

There’s more than one way to combine the salt, garlic and herbs

For this batch of Tuscan Herb Salt, I used a chef’s knife. I have pretty good knife skills from my years of working in restaurants, and I enjoy the contemplative nature of prolonged chopping. But if that may not be true for you. If I am in a hurry, a food processor works very well, and with less effort. But, I wanted to demonstrate that no special equipment is necessary, so long as you have some patience.

What kind of salt should I use for Tuscan Herb Salt?

I’ll begin by saying that you should NOT use regular table salt for this. Table salt is already pretty fine. It also has a higher sodium content than these other types of salt.  You can use ordinary kosher salt, with good results. Kosher salt is quite readily available in supermarkets now, so you should not have trouble finding it. I used a combination of different salt for this batch, mainly because I ran out of Celtic Sea Salt, which is what I most often use.

More recently, I have been using Redmond salt. This is an American product, and unrefined mineral salt contains trace elements that we sometimes lack in the standard American diet. All of these salts are going to be more expensive than ordinary supermarket table salt, but they are worth it in my opinion.

Use the herbs you like in Tuscan Herb Salt

Most of the time, I like to use a pretty good variety of herbs. This batch has thyme, parsley, rosemary and sage. I tend to preserve basil frozen with olive oil, because I think it gets too licorice-tasting when it is dried. If you like the flavor of dried basil, then you will likely enjoy it in this salt.

What’s up with that garlic?

It’s still early in the summer here, so our garlic isn’t yet mature. This is what we call green garlic, which means that it hasn’t matured with more distinct cloves yet. You can use the entire head with this kind, but if you find garlic that is more mature, use just the cloves. And because you’re going to chop it all very fine, even a bit of the green stem can be included. This gives it a flavor that I can only describe as being “green”. If green had a taste, this would be it. It’s good!

Garlic is easy to grow

I’m not going to interrupt this post to detail exactly how to grow garlic, but it is one of the easiest things in the world to grow. It can be as simple as plunking unpeeled cloves in a pot with good soil under a grow light in your living room. We have a customer who studs it all over her flower beds every year. You can easily Google how to grow garlic and other details for your exact area. I just want to encourage you to consider it – anything you can grow yourself loosens the grip of depending on the distribution grid. That’s a good thing.

Other herb combinations to try

If you have enough herbs [or buy enough at the Farmer’s Market!], you can try just about any combination. I make another version with cilantro and lime zest that is great for Tex-Mex cooking [or the rim of a margarita glass!]. Lemon zest, garlic, and rosemary is very good on pork or veggies. Sage, rosemary, garlic and lemon is great on chicken. Chives, parsley, and salt make a great combo for eggs. Any combo of flavors is worth trying, because you never know how it’s going to hit. You need to grow more herbs!

Let it dry out a bit before storing

You can use it as soon as you make it, but for longer storage, you must let it dry out pretty well, before sealing it up in a container. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the salt out on it in a thin layer. Often, I just stash the baking sheet in the oven for a few days [with a note on the control panel, so I don’t forget and turn it on], but in very humid weather, it can be dried in the dehydrator. These silicone sheets are handy to keep it from falling through the grates. You can usually find them to fit whatever dehydrator you have.

How to make Tuscan Herb Salt

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Tuscan Herb Salt

Author: Donalyn Ketchum

Tuscan Herb Salt captures the fresh flavors of summer herbs and lets us enjoy them all year. An easy way to enhance our meals!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Total Time10 minutes mins

Course: Condiments

Cuisine: American

Meal: Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Picinic, Snacks

Equipment

• Misen Chef's Knife
• Heavy Sheet Pan
• Parchment Paper
• food processor
• Spice jar lids for regular mouth mason jars
• Spice jars with lids

Ingredients

• 2- 3 large cloves of garlic
• 2 cups fresh herb leaves - see nots or the post for ideas
• 1/4 cup coarse Celtic sea salt or kosher salt or a mixture [NOT table salt]

Instructions

Food Processor Method

• If using a food processor, put everything into the bowl, in the order given and pulse multiple times to get things beginning to blend together. Once the herbs have broken down some, you can run the processor on a medium speed, until you reach the desired consistency. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides.
• When the salt mixture has reached a uniform texture, proceed as below, under drying.

Using a Chef's Knife

• Peel the garlic cloves and chop fairly finely on a large cutting board
• Add the salt
• Clean and dry the herbs, removing tough stems, yellowed leaves and mid-ribs on larger leaves.
• Pile the leaves over top of the garlic and salt.
• Using a large chef's knife, chop through the mixture with a rocking motion, first in one direction, then turn the board and chop in the other direction.
• Use the blade of the knife, or a bench scraper to scrape the mixture back into a pile, and chop through everything again.
• Repeat the scraping into a pile, and chopping over and over, until you have finely minced herbs.
• The garlic and salt will also get chopped as you go along, but it is the herbs that you want to get into very small bits - then the rest will be the right size too. This will take around 6 to 10 minutes, depending on how fast you are.

Drying

• Whichever way you make it, the salt needs a few days to get dried out.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread the mixture in a thin layer to dry, which will take 2 to 5 days, depending on the weather. If you used Celtic salt, it will still feel a little moist, which is fine.
• Put into a resealable container - will stay fresh for several months

Notes

You can use whatever herbs you like and have on hand: rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, savory, dill, parsley, tarragon, chervil, or basil.

Citrus zest may also be added

How to use Tuscan Herb Salt

There is virtually no limit to how Tuscan Herb Salt can be incorporated into your cooking. It is great as a finishing salt, and some cooks limit its use to just that.  You can sprinkle it over sauteed veggies, on eggs, or a steak hot off the grill.

I like to use it before cooking too. Sprinkle it over a skinless boneless chicken breast about 30 minutes before cooking, and the flavor will bloom and help keep the meat juicy. The same is true of steaks, chops, burgers, or fish. You can do the same 24 hours prior to cooking, [refrigerate of course] and the flavor will be even better. It’s a lovely addition to vinaigrettes, salad dressings and marinades as well.

Store in an airtight container

I list some of my favorite kitchen supplies for storage in the recipe carb, above. Once dried out, this really does need to be stored in a sealed container. It will keep for several months without losing any flavor.

If you like this idea, you might want to also check out my Lemon Garlic Salt recipe!

This post was originally made in July 2013, updated in August 2016, and updated again in June 2024