How To Make Basil Garlic Salt

jar of pale green basil garlic salt on a red and white checked tablecloth background

Basil garlic salt is an easy way to preserve your basil and add extra oomph to your cooking all year long. Plus it makes an excellent hostess gift!

For me, basil is the flavor of summer. I love making tomato and basil pizzas on the grill. Pesto is my best friend and oftentimes I’ll pluck a few leaves off my plant and eat them over the sink with a couple cherry tomatoes and a string cheese (don’t knock it until you try it). Because I love basil so much, I plant a few basil plants in my garden to try and get the most out of basil season.

One thing I learned about basil growing, is that you regularly need to top your basil to prevent it from flowering so that it gets bushier and keeps giving those spicy leaves that we love. I did my first round of basil topping a couple weeks ago and I was looking for something to do with the basil I’d just harvested. It wasn’t quite enough to make a batch of pesto yet but more than I wanted to eat straight. So, basil garlic salt it is.

What the heck am I going to use basil garlic salt for?

Good question. There are many occasions that I see a recipe and I’m like-yes! let’s make that only to realize, I have actually no good use for it. However, basil garlic salt you can use pretty much anywhere you would use regular salt, it just has a little bit of a garlicy, herby punch (in a good way).

  • Rub it on your meat, especially salmon
  • Use it where you would use salt in a salad dressing or sauce
  • Use it as a finishing salt for popcorn
  • Sprinkle it on your pan of roasted or grilled veggies
  • Rim your margarita glass with it

How To Make It:

  1. Harvest your basil, wash it and dry it. I give mine a good rinse in a colander and pat it dry on a clean kitchen towel.
  2. Fill half your food processor with basil. I used a 2 cup food processor so I used about 1 cup of basil and 1 cup of kosher salt and 3 cloves of garlic for this recipe. If your food processor is larger or smaller you can adjust as needed.
  3. Add in cloves of garlic.
  4. Fill the food processor the rest of the way with salt.
  5. Process until everything is uniform.
  6. Spread garlic basil salt onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  7. Bake at 180 degrees for about an hour until the salt is dried out.
  8. Break up the salt into a jar, alternatively you can put it back in the food processor and process again to make a more refined salt.
  9. Store in a clean dry jar for 6-12 months.
jar of pale green basil garlic salt on a red and white checked tablecloth background
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Basil Garlic Salt

Course Main Course
Prep Time 15 minutes
Servings 25 servings

Equipment

  • 1 Food processor I used a 2 cup processor

Ingredients

  • 1 cup basil leaves washed and dried
  • 3 cloves garlic peeled
  • 1 cup kosher salt

Instructions

  • Harvest your basil, wash it and dry it. I give mine a good rinse in a colander and pat it dry on a clean kitchen towel.
  • Add 1 cup fresh basil to your food processor. Add in 3 cloves of garlic and 1 cup of kosher salt.
  • Process until everything is uniform.
  • Spread salt out onto a parchment lined baking sheet
  • Bake at 180 degrees for about an hour until the salt is dried out. It should be a pale green color and look and feel dry.
  • Break up the salt into a jar, alternatively you can put it back in the food processor and process again to make a more refined salt
  • Store in a clean dry jar for 6-12 months.

Do you love basil? Try making my walnut basil pesto-we use it on everything from toast, to pasta to dollops on our homemade pizza!

Happy Baking!