While cleaning out our herb garden last weekend, I realized that there were a few overachievers that needed to be pruned back – a lot. There was so much to cut back, that I couldn’t bring myself to throw it into the compost heap, but I didn’t have a use for it fresh either. It was time to get creative and, in the end, my solution to this over-abundance of herbs was to make Herb Salts. Follow along below to see how I did it. If you’re a Simon and Garfunkel fan, you’ll appreciate what I came up with.
1. Collect fresh herbs from your garden and remove leaves from the stems. I used 1 cup of loosely packed fresh leaves per 1/2 cup of kosher salt.
2. Chop and Process, adding the 1 cup of herb leaves to a food processor with 1/4 cup of the kosher salt, reserving the other portion of salt. Pulse until the leaves are finely chopped. The mixture will be a beautiful green color and slightly wet at this point.
3. Mix Combine the processed mixture with the reserved kosher salt and spread in a thin layer on a sheet pan.
4. Time to Dry Preheat your oven to its lowest setting. I used 170F. When the oven has reached the set temperature, place the sheet pan with the herb salt mixture into the oven and turn off the heat. Leave the pan in the oven until it is dry to the touch. For the mixture of herbs I used, it took about one hour.
5. Storage Once the mixture is dry to the touch, remove it from the oven and you are ready to store your herb salts. I used some mini Ball glass jars and added some twine to the outside for decoration.
6. Enjoy So far, we’ve used our herb salt on fresh tomatoes, as a rub on pork chops, and as a popcorn topping. It has been a great way to preserve some of the extra herbs from the garden and given us an easy way to use them. I think this would make a great holiday gift as well. Below is the recipe for the version of the salt I made. This time I used Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme and I call it Simon and Garfunkel Herb Salt. Have a little fun creating your own herb mixes.
