Finishing salts with ingredients from your garden are so fresh and delicious.
They can be used on meat or roasted vegetables as a quick seasoning, mixed with oil for a bread dip, combined with oil and vinegar for a marinade, or whipped into softened butter for a savory compound spread.
For this blend you will need to harvest cherry tomatoes, garlic, onion, and basil from your garden. From the pantry, you just need salt. And a lemon or two from the market (unless you live somewhere you can grow those too!)
First, you’ll need to dehydrate these items completely. Moisture is your enemy here because it could create an environment where mold could grow. Slice the tomatoes in half, thinly slice the garlic and onion, peel the zest from the lemon, and wash and pat the basil dry.
You can use a dehydrator (follow the instructions that come with it for herbs and other items) or the oven. I dehydrated mine using a convection oven set at 175 degree(F). The herbs took 1-2 hours and the tomatoes, garlic and onion took about 4-5 to get completely dry.
When the ingredients are ready, add all but the salt to a coffee grinder (don’t use your regular coffee grinder or it will make your coffee smell like herbs – which no on wants!)
Then add the salt, shake well, and pour into pretty containers. This salt makes a wonder gift. It can be added to a bowl with olive oil for a bread dip, mixed with butter for a wonderful spread, or mixed with oil and vinegar/lemon juice for a quick marinade. Enjoy it your self or give it as a gift!
Tomato-Lemon-Garlic Finishing Salt
Equipment
- 1 Dehydrator or oven
- 1 Coffee Grinder
- 1 Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 30 cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
- 4-6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 handful fresh basil
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1-2 TBSP sea salt
Instructions
- Slice and dehydrate all ingredients except salt in the oven or dehydrator
- Once completely dry, blend in a coffee grinder until the mix is the consistency of salt
- Add salt to taste and mix well
- Pour salt blend into containers and store in the cabinet with an airtight lid