Garlic Salt

Also, whip up a batch of your very own celery salt and chipotle sea salt. Your forever-more answer will be this homemade garlic salt. It’s 3 parts sea salt to 1 part garlic granules, and it adds the perfect seasoning to any savory meal. It takes 5 minutes to make and will last for 6 months (maybe less since this will be your new go-to spice blend!). First things first: What is garlic salt? Great question! Garlic salt is a blend of salt, usually sea salt, and garlic granules or garlic powder in a 3:1 ratio. This means there’s 3 parts salt to 1 part garlic. Because this blend skews to the more salty side than garlic-y, it’s best to use garlic salt in recipes where you have a measured amount of salt (not garlic). For example, if you’re making a pasta sauce and it calls for 1 teaspoon of salt, you can add 1 teaspoon of garlic salt to get the added flavor boost from the garlic-salt combo opposed to just plain salt. Garlic salt is great for sprinkling on dishes where you might add a pinch of salt on top, like salads, eggs, or a sandwich. Or, you can use it in place of regular salt when making meals to get the bonus garlic flavor in there. Keep in mind that garlic salt still contains salt. So if you have high blood pressure or are avoiding salt for any reason, garlic salt is not your answer for seasoning.

Use it in dry rubs and marinades Sprinkled on top of veggies, avocado toast, popcorn, or fries Used to season meat dishes like grilled chicken, fish, shrimp, or beef Incorporate it into salad dressings and dips

Here are some additional ways to make your meals sing by making and using your own spice blends.

Pepper: Adding pepper to your garlic salt blend will add a peppery, woody flavor. It’s also commonly referred to as SPG or salt pepper garlic. In this case, you would add equal parts of all three spices. Onion powder: Sharp and sweet, including onion powder in your garlic salt blend will be great for savory dishes! To turn this combo into an All Purpose Seasoning blend, use the sea salt, garlic granules, onion powder + paprika and pepper. Use half the black pepper and onion powder as you do paprika, garlic, and salt. Lemon or lime zest: Adding citrus zest to your spice blend adds a nice zip of flavor. You’ll need to peel a number of lemons/limes and then dry them in order to do this. This is often called lemon garlic salt or lime garlic salt. Check out our recipe for lemon pepper seasoning to learn how to dry citrus peels.

When considering using garlic granules or garlic powder in a spice blend, granules are your top choice. The reason for this is that the texture of the granules will mix more consistently and evenly with the other spices than the finer garlic powder. Garlic salt will clump or cake when exposed to moisture or heat, sometimes forming a hard-as-a-rock block of spices. To prevent this from happening you should store your spice blend in an airtight container, in a cool, dark place. Be mindful when leaving the spice blend near any hot elements or on the counter in the sun. If you live in a humid environment (like we do in the Pacific Northwest), adding a food-safe silica packet to your garlic salt container works wonderfully. We save them anytime we open a package and find one inside so we always have a few on hand and add them to garlic and onion powder jars to prevent clumping. To unclump your garlic salt, you can stick it in a food processor or blender, or try using your microplane to finely shave it. This recipe makes a ½ cup of garlic salt. If you would like more or less all you need to do is scale the spices up or down, maintaining the 3:1 ratio. For example, if you want to make a smaller amount, like ¼ cup, you will use 3 tablespoons of sea salt and 1 tablespoon of garlic granules. On the other hand, if you’d like to make 1 cup of garlic salt you will mix 12 tablespoons (or ¾ cups) of sea salt and 4 tablespoons of garlic granules.