Herb salt

I'll be honest with you: I barely ever cook. I enjoy baking sweet things a lot more. Yet I ALWAYS use salt when I cook. Now I know the importance of salt, I won't stop using it either. Still I can get bored of salt. Whether it's table salt or coarse sea salt: at some point it's all just salt, so I like to add flavored salts to my food occasionally. I bought my mom a big jar of Parmesan Cheese & Basil salt a while ago. I remember we had rosemary salt at some point and salt with peppers along with some other flavored salts I can't remember. In stores I'll get stuck at the shelf with flavored salts and consider buying them all, but doesn't everyone?

There's one thing better than buying all different kinds of flavor salts in cute jars and that is making it yourself! And the one thing that can top that is making your own herb salt, putting it into cute jars and giving it away to friends, so you can show off  be nice!

Herb salt
Makes 1/2 cup - adapted from Allrecipes

1/4 cup coarse salt
handful fresh parsley (10 grams)
1/4 cup fine salt
 
1. Take a food processor (or mini chopper) and dump the parsley with the coarse salt in there. Make sure the parsley is not wet, so if you want to wash the herbs make sure to dab them dry with tissues. Pulse the food processor several times until you have a finer green salt, which looks like the end result but a tiny bit darker.
2. Add the fine salt to the food processor and pulse another time or two until it's mixed with the rest.
3. Leave to dry on a plate for an hour or so. 
4. Put it in a cute small jar and use it over salads, sandwiches, pastas, chicken and anywhere else you'd use salt.

Of course don't forget to try out all the other herbs. Rosemary and salt is a wonderful combination. Basil would be perfect as well. You can add 2-4 spoons of grated Parmesan cheese for the Parmesan Cheese & Basil salt combination. Or add a spoonful of pepper for a bit of extra spice. Really all you have to do once you have the salt is go into a grocery store and let your imagination run wild while you stare at herbs.

 
Another thing I have to add: keep the expiry date in mind. Although salt is a well-known preservative and it will keep your fresh herbs fine for quite a while, you're still working with fresh herbs. My jars of herb salt haven't lived long enough to see their expiry date, but I can confidently tell you you can keep your herb salt for several weeks. Perhaps the herb will dry out in the jar and you'll be able to keep it for a year or more.

Enjoy your new salty addition to the kitchen! In case you're intrigued by the third bowl on the picture: right next to the sea salt and the herb salt there's a delicious spice rub I will be posting soon.