How to make flavored salt: recipes and tips

With aromatic herbs or spices, flavored salt is perfect as a gastronomic gift and to give dishes an extra touch of flavor.

Excessive consumption of salt could be harmful to the health of the cardiovascular system, yet without it many dishes seem to have no flavor. To overcome this problem, you can prepare flavored salt: mixing salt and spices (or aromatic herbs) will allow you to reduce the amount of salt used in the recipes but also to give your dishes an extra boost of flavor. In addition, the jars of aromatic salt are a perfect gastronomic gift both for Christmas and for those times when you are a guest and do not want to show up empty-handed.

Homemade flavored salt: here’s how it’s done

Preparing different types of fragrant salt is really very simple. You can choose to use fine or coarse salt , but also the finest pink Himalayan salt . The better the quality of the salt used, the better the final result. As mentioned in the introduction, you can prepare both a salt with aromatic herbs and with spices. The more daring will also be able to perfume it with flowers (lavender and rose are perfect) and thus obtain products that are also suitable for personal care.

Salt with aromatic herbs

It is undoubtedly the most widespread and the fact that it is on the market on supermarket shelves is proof of this. But now that we will reveal how to prepare it, you will hardly buy it again. To make it, use 50 g of aromatic herbs for every 500 grams of salt . You can choose the ones you prefer among sage, rosemary, oregano, marjoram and thyme or create a mix of these.

Wash them well, dry them with kitchen paper and remove the hardest parts. Transfer them to a kitchen mixer together with the salt and blend until a homogeneous powder is obtained. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, spread the herb salt and let it air dry for a whole day before placing it in sterilized jars. Remember to label before storing salt in the pantry.

Salt with citrus fruits

Lemon, orange and mandarin but also lime for a more exotic touch, are perfect for flavoring your salt. Again, the preparation is quite simple. Get organic citrus fruits whose peel is not treated, wash and dry them. Remove the zest with a potato peeler and transfer it to the mixer together with the salt. The best proportion is the zest of a citrus fruit for every 100 g of coarse salt .

Once you have obtained a homogeneous mixture spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dry it at 50 ° C for 15 minutes. Place it in jars once cold. An excellent variant for seasoning fish can be obtained by blending salt, lemon zest and rosemary. Seeing is believing!

Chilli salt

Its strong flavor makes it ideal for seasoning pasta or for flavoring meat and fish . In this case, giving precise indications on the quantity of chilli to use is difficult because it all depends on your tolerance to spicy.

You can prepare the pepper salt using the latter fresh or dried . In the first case, after having washed and dried it, blend it with the salt and spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let it dry for one or two days in the sun (fresh chilli contains water and could compromise the conservation of the salt) or in the oven at 50 ° C for 4 hours. Once cold, place it in sterilized jars.

Salt with spices

Coming from all over the globe, spices add flavor to dishes without the need to add salt. Of all the DIY flavored salt varieties, this is probably the easiest to prepare because it doesn’t even require a blender.

Get your favorite spices including curry, turmeric, sweet or smoked paprika and blend it all with the coarse salt. If you use fine salt it is not necessary to blend, it will be enough to mix the two ingredients with a spoon and place everything in the jars. As a guideline, use 200 g of salt and 25 g of spices . In the turmeric salt we recommend adding a pinch of black pepper (about half a teaspoon) to facilitate the assimilation of nutrients.

The DIY flavored salt can be stored in closed glass jars with lids for up to a year and can be a good gift idea together with a bottle of flavored oil .