How to Make Onion Salt

Store-bought onion salt is overpriced, and it usually contains aluminum. Yuck! Here’s how to make your own version in two minutes or less.

Homemade Onion Salt Recipe

What You’ll Need:

• Salt
• Onion powder or chopped onions

What You Do:

Mix together three parts salt and one part onion powder.

To make 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp): Combine three Tablespoons salt and one Tablespoon onion powder.
To make one cup: Combine 3/4 cup salt and 1/4 cup onion powder.

Store your homemade onion salt in an air-tight container.

Trying to cut your sodium intake? Then, feel free to adjust the ratio. One of the benefits of making your own spice mixes is that it gives you the opportunity to tailor them to your preferences and needs.

This Onion Salt Recipe is Aluminum-Free

Most commercially-produced onion salt contains sodium silico aluminate. On the ingredient list, it may be listed as:

sodium aluminosilicate
aluminium sodium salt
sodium silicoaluminate
aluminosilicic acid, sodium salt
sodium aluminium silicate
aluminum sodium silicate
sasil

It’s an anti-caking (free flow) agent that’s added to keep the onion salt from clumping up. Since it contains aluminum, it’s an ingredient that I try to avoid. So, this onion salt recipe doesn’t contain an anti-caking agent. This means your homemade onion salt will clump eventually. But that’s easily solved. Just make a small batch to minimize the storage time, and if you find your onion salt has clumped up, simply break up the clumps before you use it. You can do this with a spoon, a mortar and pestle, or by briefly pulsing it in a spice grinder. Easy!

How to Use Chopped Onions to Make Onion Salt

If you don’t have any onion powder in your pantry, you can also use chopped onions (also referred to as dried onions, onion flakes, dehydrated onions or minced onions) to make a batch of onion salt. It only adds one step to the recipe.

Just grind some chopped onions in a spice grinder, a food processor or with a mortar and pestle, to create the onion powder that you need. Then, continue with the recipe.

Onion Salt Substitute

If you don’t have the ingredients for onion salt, your best bet is to use garlic salt as a stand in. It’ll impart a similar flavor, without adding any unwanted texture or moisture to your dish.

As a last resort, finely grated onion, can be used as a replacement. Figure on 1/4 cup of grated (or finely minced) onion, plus 3/4 teaspoon salt for every tablespoon of onion salt that’s called for. This will add considerable bulk and moisture to your recipe, so consider how this will effect your recipe, before you proceed.

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