Why the Internet’s Favorite Seasoning Salt Should Be in Your Pantry

It's time to learn about Herbamare.

Making quick meals that are still super flavorful is all about having the right powerhouse ingredients in your arsenal. Whether it’s adding a splash of soy sauce, sprinkle of chili flakes, or drizzle of vinegar, leveraging pantry staples can make a bland dinner infinitely better in seconds. And it’s time to meet a new one.

Herbamare is a seasoning salt that I first came across on social media. On both TikTok and Instagram, a few of the food influencers I follow have been using it on everything — the signature green can it comes in, which looks similar to the containers of kosher salt you might buy, is hard to miss. I’ve noticed that the product seems to be particularly popular among Canadian, European, and Australian influencers, so consider this my effort to popularize it in the United States.

Related: 7 Classic Spice Blends You Should Use More Often

TikToker Kaelah E uses the spice mix in dishes from omelets to roast chicken and even broccoli and cheddar soup. If she’s making something savory on her feed, it’s safe to say Herbamare will be involved. (She loves the seasoning so much, she now has a discount code from the brand that her followers can use). Content creator Lina Jabbari says she likes adding it “to everything for quick extra flavor,” which is an apt description of what it will do. And although I can't quite understand what the French food influencers are saying, I can recognize the Herbamare canister in their videos.

I’m not typically one to opt for seasoning salts because they sometimes have additional ingredients like maltodextrin, silicon dioxide, corn starch, or added colorings — none of which are necessarily bad, but I prefer to flavor my food without them. On the other hand, some seasoning salt options have a fairly limited ingredient list, primarily consisting of salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. All of these spices are great, but I keep them on hand at all times and it’s easy to sprinkle them in individually; nobody needs a mix to use them.

But Herbamare acquires a super-savory flavor from a combination of dried herbs and vegetables (it's almost like seasoning your food with dried vegetable stock), that makes it well-worth incorporating into your spice cabinet. The complete list of ingredients includes sea salt, celery leaves, leek, water and garden cress, onion, chive, parsley, lovage (an herb with hints of celery, parsley, and fennel flavors), garlic, basil, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, and kelp.

Related: Morton vs. Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt: What’s the Difference?

Because it uses a variety of tender herbs, mild greens, and aromatics, the resulting flavor isn’t overly herbal or oniony. Instead it makes your food taste a bit more complex and more like itself, the way salt should. If you’re wondering why kelp is included, the briny addition is what gives Herbamare its extra umami. There are undoubtedly other seasoning salt options that use similar ingredients or leave some of these out, but this one works well, and it's easy to find.

Once you snag a can of Herbamare, it’s the kind of ingredient you'll be busting out almost every day. I’d caution against using it in recipes that rely on their own careful blends of spices, but it’s great for dishes that are plain, only call for salt and pepper, or no-recipe recipes that could use a little extra oomph. Think: Fried eggs, roasted vegetables, creamy casseroles, a pot of soup, or slowly simmered meat.

The only caveat is that it's important to remember Herbamare already includes salt, as its name obviously implies. So don’t pour it in after you’ve already salted your food. It’s best to incorporate it incrementally so that you can taste it as you go and determine whether or not you need more. As my mother told me when I was first learning to cook, you can always add more of an ingredient, but it’s much more difficult to remove something once you’ve poured it in.

Major grocery stores like Kroger, Walmart, and Whole Foods carry Herbamare, and you can find it alongside the other salts and spices. If you have trouble locating it in person, Amazon will also ship the item to you. So snag a canister of this seasoning salt, and soon you’ll also be sprinkling it on everything.