A bunch of parsley keeps in the fridge for five days before it turns yellow. Ground into coarse sea salt, that same bunch keeps for six months without the aroma fading. This is not nostalgia from your grandmother’s pantry, it is simple food chemistry: salt draws out moisture, and without moisture there is no spoilage.
We have been making our herb salt for years in two versions. The quick version uses dried herbs from the store cupboard and is ready in ten minutes. Then there is the summer version with 300 g of fresh herbs from the garden, which we pre-dry in the oven at 50 °C for one hour before they go into the mixing bowl. Both end up in screw-top jars and sit ready to use all year long, right next to the pepper mill and olive oil.
Herb Salt with Garlic, Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 8 ✓
- 1 garlic clove
- 150 g coarse salt
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 3 tsp dried parsley
- 3 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions 0 / 2
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1
Peel the garlic, place it in the mixing bowl and chop for 3 sec / speed 8, then scrape down with the spatula.
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2
Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl and chop for 10 sec / speed 9.
Tip: Feel free to vary the herbs to suit your own taste. That way you create your own personal herb salt.
Nutrition per serving
Why 250 g of salt to just a few tablespoons of herbs
The ratio in the basic recipe looks unbalanced at first glance. 250 g of coarse sea salt, combined with around 7 tbsp of herbs and 1 tsp of chilli flakes. The logic: the salt is not just a seasoning here, it is a preservative. It draws out any free moisture from the mixture, and that is exactly why the jar keeps for six months without going mouldy or musty. If you reverse the ratio and use more herbs than salt, you get a lovely green mixture that starts to show mould spots by April.
The Thermomix® is the right tool for this step because it pulverises the herbs and salt at one speed: 10 seconds at speed 10, one scrape down with the spatula, then a further 5 seconds at speed 10 if needed. Two things happen at once. The salt crystals break open the herb cells and release the essential oils, while the salt surfaces bind the aromatic compounds. In a pestle and mortar the same process takes twenty minutes and is never as even.
Fresh herbs need a drying step first
The most common question about this recipe is about fresh herbs from the garden. The answer: they work, but only with an extra drying step. We harvest 300 g before flowering, strip the leaves, rinse them in cold water and shake them dry in a tea towel. Then they go onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and into the oven. 50 °C fan, one hour, door left slightly ajar so the moisture can escape. Using 60 °C risks brown edges and lost essential oils. Skipping the drying step and grinding wet leaves directly with salt gives you a green paste that shows mould spots within three weeks.
After drying, the home-dried herbs replace the dried herbs in the basic recipe. The grinding process is identical and the ratio of salt to herbs stays the same. We use 40 g of coarse salt per 300 g of fresh herbs for the drying step itself, then the dried mixture is ground with the remaining 210 g of salt from the recipe.
Three blends, three characters
We give you three recipes in this post. The classic blend with wild garlic, parsley, thyme, marjoram, oregano, rosemary and chilli flakes goes with almost anything: roasted vegetables, fried potatoes, salad dressings, tomato soup. The garlic version uses one fresh garlic clove, chopped for 3 seconds at speed 8 and then processed further with 150 g of salt and herbs. It tastes noticeably rounder than any garlic granule mix from the supermarket, because the fresh allicin is released during grinding.
The Mediterranean herb salt is our favourite blend for pasta, pizza and Bruschetta. 4 tsp rosemary, 4 tsp basil, 2 tsp each of oregano, thyme and marjoram, plus one garlic clove and 150 g of coarse salt. If you want a taste of Italy in a jar, this is the blend. It keeps for around four to five months, slightly less than the classic version, because the basil proportion is high and basil loses its aroma faster than rosemary or thyme.
What really happens during storage
Three things determine shelf life: how dry the herbs are, how well the jar seals, and whether it is kept away from light. We fill clean screw-top jars immediately after grinding, press the salt down gently with a dry spoon and seal straight away. Our jars sit on the kitchen shelf, not on the windowsill. Sunlight bleaches the green colour within eight weeks, and the flavour follows shortly after.
If the salt clumps after two weeks, one of the herbs was not fully dry. That is not a disaster. We place the open jar in the oven at 50 °C for one hour, let it cool and seal it again. The flavour is unaffected and the clumping usually resolves itself. Mould spots (grey, blue or black) are a different matter and a clear stop signal. The jar must be discarded. Mould in salt is rare, but it does happen when the herbs were too damp.
Where herb salt really shines
We use our herb salt in places where plain salt would be one-dimensional. Over jacket potatoes just before serving, because the heat opens the essential oils immediately. In potato soup made with the Thermomix® when the soup is already creamy and just needs one final seasoning touch. On tomatoes with Mozzarella, a splash of olive oil and nothing else. In salad dressings together with mustard, vinegar and oil, instead of salt and a separate herb mix. On grilled meat immediately after turning, never before, because salt draws out the meat juices and the herbs would burn on the grill.
Filled into small screw-top jars with a handwritten label, herb salt also makes a gift that feels far more personal than a bottle of wine. For a larger quantity we simply scale up the basic recipe and fill several 90 ml jars straight from the mixing bowl. One batch makes four to five gifts.
6 months, sealed and away from light
In a sealed screw-top jar, kept dark and at room temperature, the classic herb salt stays aromatic for six months. The Mediterranean blend with its high basil content keeps for around four to five months, after which it becomes a little milder in flavour but is still perfectly usable. Older herb salt that is no longer at its best goes into stocks and braises, where any loss of intensity goes unnoticed.
We have gathered more basic recipes for the Thermomix® in our basic recipes collection.
Goes well with: Pasta.
Also pairs nicely with: Lemon Salt Paste, Thermomix®.
Freezing is neither necessary nor practical. Salt draws moisture from the surrounding air in the freezer as soon as the jar is opened, and then clumps irreversibly. Dry storage is the right method.
