How to Preserve Herbs in Salt
Easy Recipes for Herb Salt You Can Make at Home
There’s something so satisfying about preserving the flavors of your herb garden—and one of the simplest, most beautiful ways to do it is by making herb salt. It’s an old-fashioned preservation method with a modern twist: not only does it extend the life of your herbs, but it also turns them into delicious, customizable seasonings you’ll want to sprinkle on everything.
In this post, I’ll show you how to preserve herbs in salt, walk you through a few tried-and-true recipes like rosemary salt, basil salt, and garlic salt, and finish with a homemade blend of mixed herbs. These recipes make excellent pantry staples—or thoughtful gifts tucked into little jars.
This post is all about herb salt.
Table of Contents
Why Make Herb Salt?
Preserving herbs in salt is incredibly easy, and the result is more than just a way to save herbs—it’s a flavor booster. Salt draws out moisture, helping to preserve the herbs, while the herbs infuse the salt with their aroma and oils. You can add herb salts to so many dishes or even do a meat rub! As mentioned before, it’s another way to preserve what you grow, or even preserve what you bought at the market. The best thing is that you can totally customize an herb salt to your own taste and even experiment with different mixes of herbs. These are salts you may not be able to find at the store, or if you do, pay a hefty price for them. That’s what makes this type of preservation so unique!
Herb salt benefits:
- Extends the shelf life of fresh herbs
- Adds depth and complexity to everyday dishes
- Makes beautiful, giftable jars for friends or holiday baskets
- Uses only simple ingredients—fresh herbs + salt!
Basic Method: How to Make Herb Salt
Making an herb salt is super easy and doesn’t take a lot of prep work either. You only need two ingredients to get started, depending on what kind of salt you want to make. Do you want to just make, for example, a basil salt, or are you going to make an herb mix with several different herbs?
- Fresh herbs (washed and completely dried)
- Salt (kosher salt, sea salt, or canning salt work well)
Basic Ratio and How to Make Herb Salt
There’s a basic rule of thumb when making an herb salt and that’s the ratio of herbs to salt. Use about 1 part herbs to 4 parts salt by volume. You can adjust this depending on how bold you want the flavor.
Tools You’ll Need
- cutting board
- knife
- food processor
- baking sheet
- parchment paper
- oven or dehydrator
Instructions
- Strip the leaves off the herb stems.
- Pulse the herbs and salt together in a food processor until finely blended, or chop the herbs by hand and mix with salt in a bowl. Pulsing the mixture is an important step because the goal isn’t to make it a super fine salt (unless that’s what you want!). The goal is to break up the herbs and salt a bit, not for it to be pulverized, if that makes sense.
- Now it’s time to dry the mixture. There are a few ways to do this:
- Spread the mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let it air-dry for 1 to 3 days, stirring occasionally.
- Dry in a low oven (under 180°F) for 1–2 hours.
- Place parchment paper on trays and use a dehydrator to dry it. Reference the instruction booklet of the dehydrator to determine the temperature and how long to dry.
- Once dry, store in an airtight jar.
Ok, now that we know the basic steps to making an herb salt, we can dive into some recipes. Let’s start with a simple rosemary salt. For each of the recipes, follow the blending and drying instructions listed above.
Rosemary Salt Recipe
This rosemary salt recipe is one of my favorites for seasoning roasted potatoes, grilled meats, or even popcorn.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves
- 1 cup kosher or sea salt
Next, use the instructions above to combine and dry the rosemary and salt.
Garlic Salt Recipe (with Fresh Garlic)
Have you ever bought garlic salt from the store? It’s not exactly cheap and actually very easy to make. Forget the store-bought version—this garlic salt recipe uses real garlic for bold flavor.
Ingredients:
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
Basil Salt Recipe
Ok, right now I’m salivating just thinking about this recipe because it smells absolutely amazing. It’s perfect for tomatoes, grilled veggies, or finishing pasta. This basil salt recipe captures the essence of summer.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup coarse sea salt
Salt and Lavender Recipe (Floral Finishing Salt)
If you love delicate, aromatic flavors, or you’re looking to make something a bit more unique, this one’s for you. This slt is lovely on baked goods, roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, with chocolate, or sprinkled over goat cheese. Or you can even use this as a bath soak!
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp dried culinary lavender buds
- 1/2 cup flaky sea salt
Homemade Seasoning Salt (Mixed Herb Salt Recipe)
Ok, so we have enough individual herbs with salt combinations, but what about a mix of different herbs? This is another opportunity to make your own unique blend, and hopefully you’re able to use your herbs from the garden. That’ll make it extra special.This homemade seasoning salt combines multiple herbs for a go-with-everything blend. It can be used in soups, on different types of meats, in sauces, and so many other dishes.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp chopped rosemary
- 2 tbsp chopped sage
- 2 tbsp chopped thyme
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
- 1 cup kosher salt
Tips for Storing Herb Salt
After making our herb salts, we want to make sure they are stored well. Even though the herbs are now preserved in the salt, we don’t want them getting funky or worry about them clumping together. So here are a few storing tips:
Be sure to store your salts in an airtight jar or container. Mason jars are the perfect container to put them in and they make for a great gift.
Keep the container or jar in a cool, dry pantry away from sunlight. Sunlight causes oxidation and degradation of the finished product. The heat that build up ruins the flavor and aroma of the herbs. Additionally, by keeping the container out of the sun, it prevents moisture from accumulating. We don’t want any moisture in the container. This provides an environment for things like mold to start growing.
How long will the salts last? Most herb salts last 6–12 months, depending on the herbs used and how well they’re store. If they’re put away in a cool, dry place, they should last quite a while.
Ways to Use Herb Salt
After making and storing our herb salt(s), we’ve touched on a couple of way to use them. But I’ve created a little summarization and even added some other ways. Once you have a few jars of herb salt on hand, you’ll start using them in all kinds of ways:
- Sprinkle on roasted vegetables
- Add to marinades or dressings
- Stir into softened butter for an instant herb compound
- Use as a finishing touch on grilled meats or scrambled eggs
Have you made your own herb salts with any of the recipes above, or have you made your own combination? Share in the comments below! We love to hear what others make.
This post was all about herb salt.
Bonus: Want to Grow and Preserve More Herbs Year-Round?
Get our Printable Garden Planner to help you organize your herb garden, track harvests, and plan for preservation! Whether you’re drying, freezing, or salting herbs, this planner keeps it all in one place.
👉 Grab the planner below!
