Make herb salt and sugar with your garden herbs! This easy tutorial will teach you how to dry your herbs and turn them into delicious flavored salt and sugar!
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I find myself thinking about the end of summer like the end of a relationship. When I've gone through a breakup with someone, I've wanted them out of my life. Like for good. I've wanted to rid myself of everything that reminded me of them. I've torn up old pictures, thrown out gifts they've given me (or in some cases, sold them on eBay and Amazon), and basically deleted them completely from my life.
There's not much difference between a bad boyfriend and the end of summer as far as I'm concerned. Summer and I, we've had a good run. But there comes a time in every season when you just want it to end. So I've been spending some time outside cleaning up the remnants of summer.
I've already replaced my bird bath, gazing globe, and solar lights with Halloween decorations. Last week I started hacking at my herb garden and poisoning weeds to death (I had a mobster moment with my husband chopping down an overgrown weed with a giant pair of clippers where we joked about cutting off fingers and plucking out teeth - this is how we do romance, kids).
How to Make Herb Salt and Sugar
I tossed some of the herbs that didn't make it, but I started getting creative thanks to Food Network magazine and Pinterest. I ended up making some herb salt and sugar. It's really simple to do! And all you need is your oven (or a dehydrator) and some containers to store your salt and sugar in!
The first thing I did was rinse my herbs (I used basil, rosemary, and mint). I can't really tell you how much I used. I just chopped a large handful of each. Then, I placed them on wire racks on baking sheets.
On the lowest setting of my oven, I dried the herbs for about 45 minutes, or until they looked completely dried out and felt kind of crunchy.
Then, I filled a bowl with about a cup of sea salt (and another bowl with about a cup of sugar). I added the herbs to the bowls, crushed them up with my hands to release the oils, and mixed up the salt/sugar. You can pulse the herbs and salt/sugar together in a food processor, but I prefer to do this by hand.
Add the herb salts and sugar to spice containers, mason jars, or other containers with lids. Once the containers were filled, I labeled them and gave some to my friends and family. Of course, I kept some for myself, too!
How to Make Herb Salt and Sugar
Ingredients
To make herb salt:
- 1 cup sea salt
- Fresh rosemary basil, thyme, or other herbs, rinsed and dried
To make herb sugar:
- 1 cup sugar
- Fresh mint rinsed and dried
Instructions
- Place herbs onto wire racks on baking sheets. Amount of herbs used is up to you. More herbs will give your salt or sugar a bolder flavor.
- Place the baking sheets in the oven on the lowest heat and dry the herbs for 45 minutes.
- Once the herbs are dried, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool.
- Place salt or sugar into small mixing bowl. Remove the herbs from stems and add to mixing bowl.
- Mix the herbs and salt/sugar by hand, crushing the herbs to release their oils.
- Then, spoon or funnel the herb salt/sugar into sealable containers.
- Store in a cool, dry place.
While I haven't used the rosemary salt or mint sugar yet, I have used the basil salt over Caprese salad, which was delicious! My next herb hacking project is drying some chives and scallions for future use.
Did you make Herb Salt and Sugar? Share it on social media using the hashtag #holokahome. Don’t forget to tag me @holokahome!
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