Flavored salt recipes are a nice way to preserve culinary herbs. These three infused salt recipes include a wood-smoked salt, lemon-sage salt, and sesame gomasio.
We live in extraordinary times, with a dazzling array of salts that are smoky, volcanic, or kissed by the subtle flavors of seaweed and minerals. Herb-infused salt recipes are a delightful alchemy between earth and sea, plant and mineral. Herbal salts are surprisingly easy to conjure up. In early fall, I prepare big batches of salts from the herbs I harvest before the first frost. If your love language involves homemade holiday gifts, as mine does, you’ll appreciate having a pantry full of finishing salts in pretty little jars ready for birthdays and holiday gift-giving.
Finishing salts get their name from their kitchen use, traditionally added to a dish after it’s prepared. But you needn’t be held back by this convention — as long as you understand how salt behaves. Coarser salts, with a larger flake, add a gust of crunch and saltiness, but if you add them earlier in the cooking process, the salt dissolves and loses its texture. A finer grain provides more even distribution, for times when you don’t want splashes of saltiness.
Experiment with salt textures, and you’ll be a more dexterous cook. Add herbal salts to marinades and dressings or rub them onto meats and seafood before roasting, grilling, or pan-frying. I enjoy my finishing salts daily on popcorn, eggs, and beans. When I need a quick party trick, I add herbal salts to goat cheese and drizzle in olive oil, resulting in a salty, creamy dip. Herb-infused salt recipes are so central to the life of my kitchen that they live next to the stove, coming out to play at nearly every mealtime. It’s all too easy to overdo it with these salt blends if you treat them like herbal seasoning and add liberal amounts to food. They’re genuinely salty, so go easy at first!
Make Your Own Flavored Salt Recipes
Himalayan pink salt and Real Salt (from Utah) are mined from ancient marine fossil deposits; their rosy hue is derived from a high content of minerals and trace elements. If you’re concerned about microplastics in your sea salt — and, yes, sadly, this can be a concern — these mountain-mined salts are a good choice. Substitute Himalayan pink salt for Real Salt in the recipes below, if needed.
Use the weight measurements in these recipes instead of volume, because salt density varies depending on its crystal size. Also, pay special attention to the texture of the salt when you’re shopping, because these recipes call for coarse salt. What you purchase may not always be labeled as “coarse” but should look coarser than table salt.
- De-stem and finely mince fresh herbs. I recommend using the weight measurements given for the salt in these recipes for greater accuracy, because they call for salts with a variety of crystal sizes. You can also create your own blend, using equal parts fresh herbs to salt by volume. For instance, if you’re making a rosemary-thyme salt, add 1 cup total of combined fresh rosemary and thyme leaves to 1 cup of coarse sea salt. If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, use high-quality dried herbs; simply cut the quantity of herbs called for in half.
- Blend the ingredients in a food processor or spice blender until the consistency is even. Don’t go overboard. I like my finishing salts the texture of beach sand rather than table salt. If you don’t have a food processor or spice blender, finely mince your fresh herbs and then combine with the salt.
- Dry the finishing salts (if you used dried herbs, skip this step). Spread the mixture on a serving tray or rimmed baking sheet and place it in an area with good airflow. I dry my salts on a table or counter underneath a ceiling fan. Depending on the humidity, it may take 2 to 4 days for the salt to dry. If your blend is heavy on fresh herbs and lighter on salt, it’ll take longer to dry. Periodically stir and break apart any clumps. If you need your finishing salts right away or you live in a humid climate, dry herbal salts in a dehydrator. Or, dry them in an oven: Place the mixture on a rimmed baking sheet. Use the lowest heat setting and leave the oven door slightly ajar. Stir every half-hour and break up any clumps. Depending on the recipe, it may take a few hours for the mixture to dry. Let the salt cool before storing. The heat from the oven will evaporate some of the herbs’ essential oils, diminishing the salt’s aroma and flavor. Therefore, if you have the time, the slow-drying, open-air method is preferred.
- After your blend is thoroughly dry, store in airtight glass containers.
Flavored Salt Recipes to Try
Dusky Desert Finishing Salt
This pungent blend is especially tasty on poultry and adds variety to goat cheese, baked potatoes, and stuffing. Combine it with olive oil and vinegar to create a flavorful salad dressing, or sprinkle it on a sweet potato, black bean casserole, or burritos. Try it as a garnish on squash bisque or sliced and roasted squash — its smokiness slow dances with the sweetness of winter squash. Yield: 1-1/4 cups.
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) coarse Real Salt
- 1/2 cup (80 grams) coarse wood-smoked sea salt
- 1/2 cup (75 grams) coarse Hawaiian, or black, lava sea salt
- 1/2 cup (23 grams) tightly packed fresh rosemary leaves
- 1/4 cup (7 grams) tightly packed whole fresh garden sage leaves
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
- 15 dried juniper berries, mashed with a mortar and pestle or the back of a knife
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Lemon and White Sage Finishing Salt
This salt’s uplifting aroma makes it delightful to prepare. If you haven’t tried white sage (Salvia apiana) as a culinary herb, you’re in for a real treat. White sage is similar to its kissing cousin, garden sage, but with a more intense flavor. White sage is overharvested in the wild, so grow your own or purchase from an organic farmer — and substitute with garden sage if needed. Like garden sage, white sage’s pungent, resinous flavor complements fatty foods. Indeed, our taste buds may be speaking for our stomachs in this department, as sage is one of the best culinary herbs for enhancing fat digestion. Try sage-y flavored salt recipes in stuffing, along with black pepper and anise seeds, or add the blend to meatloaf, poultry, or roasted roots. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.
- 1-1/2 cups (420 grams) coarse Real Salt
- Handful (21 grams) whole fresh white sage leaves (Salvia apiana)
- 3 tablespoons grated lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
Midnight Nettles Gomasio Recipe
Gomasio, or sesame salt, is a traditional Japanese seasoning. Rich in minerals from both the sesame seeds and the nettles, this herbal version adds a splash of ebony color to salads, dressings, and stir-fries, along with a hearty dose of antioxidant anthocyanins. Try it sprinkled on salad, soup, roasted roots, and grilled fish. Don’t confuse black cumin seeds for black sesame seeds — they look similar but aren’t interchangeable. If you can’t find black sesame seeds, substitute un-hulled sesame seeds. Yield: about 2 cups.
- 1-3/4 cups black sesame seeds
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) coarse Hawaiian, or black lava, sea salt
- 1/4 cup (6 grams) dried nettles leaves (Urtica dioica)
Heat a dry skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is warm, add the sesame seeds and toast, stirring frequently, for a few minutes until their aroma fills the room. It’s easy to burn the seeds, so don’t walk away! Turn off the heat, pour the seeds onto a plate, and let them cool. Combine the seeds with the salt and nettles in a food processor and blend. Gomasio doesn’t need to dry; it’s best eaten fresh. Keep it refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 months.
Juliet Blankespoor is the founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. She has a degree in botany and over 25 years of experience teaching and writing about herbal medicine, botany, and organic herb cultivation. Connect with her at Healing Garden Gateway.
Add to your herbal flavored salt recipes and explore more culinary and medicinal herbs with Juliet Blankespoor’s complete guide, The Healing Garden. Blankespoor covers how to plan your garden, essential information on seed propagation, detailed profiles of must-know plants, 70 recipes for teas, tinctures, oils, salves, syrups, and more. Packed with sumptuous photography, this book appeals to home gardeners wanting to branch out to culinary and medicinal herbs, home cooks interested in natural wellness, and novice and skillful herbalists.
Originally published as “Make Your Own Herbal Finishing Salts” in the October/November 2023 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
