Eating rosemary, as with most herbs, offers some wonderful health benefits. According to whfoods.com:
“The wonderful smell of rosemary is often associated with good food and great times. But it could just as easily be associated with good health. Rosemary contains substances that are useful for stimulating the immune system, increasing circulation, and improving digestion. Rosemary also contains anti-inflammatory compounds that may make it useful for reducing the severity of asthma attacks. In addition, rosemary has been shown to increase the blood flow to the head and brain, improving concentration.”
Creating a blend of your favorite herbs with sea salt is an easy way to keep big flavor on-hand to add to any dish in a pinch (literally). Use a coarse, unrefined, mineral-rich salt (either white or grey). You can often find these salts in bulk at a grocery co-op, online, or even at your local grocery store. Here's what I do to make my rosemary sea salt.
herb & lemon salt blends from Practical Paleo
ingredients
- 1 cup fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme, lemon peel, etc.)
- 1/2 cup coarse sea salt
preparation
Preheat oven to 250F or the lowest setting (a “warm” setting will work, too).
Spread individual herbs on their own baking sheets, and dry in the oven until they break apart when handled between your fingers. This takes roughly 4 hours.
Using a food processor or a mortar and pestle, grind dried herbs and salt to your desired consistency.
Re-dry the herb salt in the oven if there is any remaining moisture.
Store the herb salt in glass jars in cool, dry place.
Note: If a recipe calls for one of these salt blends and you do not have them prepared, simply use a 1:1 ratio of a dried herb or lemon peel to coarse sea salt. I highly recommend that you make both a rosemary and a sage salt blend to keep on-hand for use on their own as well as in recipes later in Practical Paleo.
That's it! Do you want to try this recipe with other herbs? If so, which ones? Go for it! Then let me know how it goes.
Comments 13
@Allie- Come to my workshop this weekend!! http://www.eventbrite.com/event/975538863
Love doing this! I saw a vendor at my market last weekend and thought "hm…I didn't know they "made" this!" I also do about a 50/50 ratio herbs to salt, and I like to use thyme as well. Considering a lemon zest salt…
@Erin- I love the idea of a lemon salt! I may get on that by dehydrating some zest then blending that- nice!
That sounds so nice! I love rosemary, especially with roasts! It will taste amazing on roast chicken and veggies! Can’t mait to try it!
Thank you so much for this idea!! What a great way to use up the extra fresh herbs that are
left over from cooking!! Can’t wait to try this!
I have found that if you take stalks of fresh rosemary and wrap it up in paper towel and put it in a cold part of the fridge for a while, it will just dry out on its own. No need to heat up the oven.
I make a similar blend with sage. Similar, because I add pepper. Love spice blends with pepper!
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I have couple of questions about the herb & lemon salt blends (p. 230) and about fresh vs dried herbs measurement
Do all the spices go together (rosemary, sage, thyme, lemon peel, etc.)+ salt to create the basic herb & lemon salt blend recipe OR is it 1 cup or rosemary (or Sage or Thyme or Lemon peel) + 1/2 salt ? I am confused because the Savory Spice Blend on page 310 calls for 2 tablespoons of Rosemary-Sage Salt and I am not sure how to make it.
Also I only have access to dried herbs so need to know how much dried herbs is made out of one cup of fresh herbs? Thank you.
It’s a 2:1 ratio of whatever herbs or flavors that you want. So if you just want rosemary salt, and a lot of it, it’s 1 cup rosemary to 1/2 cup sea salt. It took me a bit to get my head around it, but knowing the ratio helped.