Homemade Italian Seasoning Substitute Recipe (No Salt)

This Italian seasoning blend is quick to throw together and livens up any Italian-inspired recipe.  Use it to season pasta sauces, lasagne, and risotto.  This spice mix is free from salt and sugar giving you more flexibility when preparing your meals.

Whenever I’m cooking an Italian-inspired dish, I always add in some of this homemade Italian seasoning and it transforms my meals from bland to seriously delicious. 

Video Demonstration

If you’d like to see how easy it is to throw all this together, check out my video where I walk you through the recipe step by step. 

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Benefits

• Saves you a lot of time when you’re cooking.  Avoids having to get out 10 different spices for each recipe. 
• Saves you a lot of money.  It is so much cheaper to make your own seasonings than to buy ready-made seasoning mixes. 
• Salt-free.  I don’t think it’s a good idea to use a spice blend that contains salt because the salt isn’t usually a good quality salt such as sea salt.  If the salt is already added it usually won’t be in the correct proportions for the recipe meaning you might end up adding too much salt. 
• Sugar-free.  For the same reasons, it’s not great to use a seasoning blend that contains sugar because the type of sugar won’t be good quality.  I prefer to add a more natural sweetener to my dishes such as maple syrup.  But sometimes you don’t want to add any sweetener at all, and you won’t be able to avoid it if there is already sugar in your spice blend.  If you increase the spiciness of the dish, you’ll always be increasing the sweetness if you use a spice blend that contains sugar. 
• Vegan.  Some seasonings contain milk powder, so it’s far better to make your own and be in control of all of the ingredients. 
• Gluten-free.  Some spice mixes contain a lot of fillers such as flour containing gluten, so it’s always better to make your own so you can avoid any ingredients you don’t want to eat. 
• Make a larger quantity.  When you buy seasoning from the store it usually comes in a very small jar, whereas when you make your own seasoning you can make as much as you like.  For the seasonings that you use a lot, you can make a big jar of them.  That means they’ll last months if not a year before you have to make the seasoning recipe again.  

The Structure Of A Plant Based Plate

Each of the recipes I create fits into my Plant Plate System.  This system incorporates 5 food groups into every meal. 

The 5 food groups are 1) Plant Protein, 2), Leaves, Fruit, And Veg, 3) Aesthetic Additions, 4) Nutrient Packed Carbohydrates, and 5) Taste

This recipe adds flavor to any dish.  It falls under the “Taste” category on the Plant Based Plate and is not a complete meal.

The diagram below helps you visually see how this element features on a Plant-Based Plate.

Click here to discover more about my Plant Plate System and some of the benefits of eating this way.

Ways To Use This Recipe

Here are some of my favorite ways to use my Italian Seasoning: 

• Pasta sauces
• Pizza sauce
• Risotto
• Lasagne
• Polenta
• Focaccia
• Carbonara
• Vegan Meatballs
• Spaghetti bolognese

Ingredient Substitutions

Here are the main ingredients in this recipe and substitutions you can use if you want to replace something:

• Basil.  If you don’t have basil, you can use an equal quantity of marjoram or parsley. 
• Marjoram. If you don’t have marjoram, you can use an equal quantity of basil or parsley. 
• Parsley. If you don’t have Parsley, you can use an equal quantity of basil or marjoram. 
• Oregano.  Oregano provides some extra spice and a balanced taste.  If you don’t have dried oregano, you can either leave it out, or use dried cilantro/coriander, or dried basil. 
• Garlic powder.  Garlic powder gives a recipe a delicious sweet flavor.  If you don’t have garlic powder, add more onion powder. 
• Onion powder.  Onion powder gives the recipe a deep umami flavor.  If you don’t have this you can add more garlic powder.
• Thyme. If you don’t have thyme, you can use an equal quantity of basil or parsley. 
• Sage. If you don’t have sage, you can use an equal quantity of basil or parsley.
• Black pepper.  Black pepper adds even more heat to the seasoning blend.  If you don’t want to use it, leave it out and add more chili powder or paprika.

Equipment

The equipment that you’ll need for this recipe is:

• Jars.  The size of jars that I used was 200ml/ 6 oz.  If you have a different size jar that you want to use, see below for my instructions on changing the quantity of the recipe.
• Measuring Spoons.  It is much faster to use measuring spoons than to weigh small quantities of spice.  Measuring spoons are very cheap and as most recipes use them, it’s a good investment to make.
• Chalkboard Labels. I like to use chalkboard labels for my jars so that I can change the label if I change the contents of the jar.  To remove the chalk from the label, just use soap and give them a little scrub with a cloth. 
• Chalk Pens. I use chalk pens to write the name of my spice blends on the jar. Once you shake up the jars, the contents will be unrecognizable, so it’s important that you label each jar. 
• Food Clips. When you are making your own spice mixes, you’ll end up with unused ingredients in bags.  I like to clip these closed with a food clip.
• Coffee & Spice Grinder. Although I didn’t use a coffee grinder for this recipe, you may like to replace some of the ground ingredients with whole spices and grind them.  Your spice blends will be much more flavorful if you grind your spices yourself.  I just didn’t take the time to do this myself.  However, I did use a coffee grinder to grind my onion and garlic powder that had solidified in the jars.  If you don’t have a coffee grinder, you could also use a high-speed blender, a mini chopper, or a small food processor. 

Instructions

1. Add all of the ingredients straight into your jar. 
2. Shake your jar until combined.  Or you can use a mini whisk or fork to stir the contents inside the jar.

Serving Sizes

The best way to make this recipe is to use a jar that you already have. 

Here’s how to calculate changing the quantity of the individual ingredients for the size of your jar. 

Here’s the calculation you’ll need to use.

Measurement of ingredient / 200 X size of your jar in ml. 

For example, if you have a 150ml jar and you are trying to change the quantity of 2 tablespoons of spice, the calculation would be as follows:

2 divided by 200 multiplied by 150 = 1.5. 

That would mean that you would need to use 1.5 tablespoons instead of 2 tablespoons of a particular ingredient if you were using a 150ml jar. 

How Much Seasoning To Add To A Recipe

I would start by adding 1 tablespoon to a recipe that served 4 and then increase the quantity to suit your own tastebuds. 

If you are making a recipe that serves 1, start by adding just less than 1 teaspoon of seasoning to your recipe.

How To Make A Single Serving Of This Recipe

If you’re not ready to make a big batch of this seasoning mix, and you want to make enough spice blend for just 1 recipe that serves 4, here are the quantities you’ll need to use: 

• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon dried sage
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Storage

Ground spices start to lose their potency after 6 months.  However, when you buy ground spices, you don’t know how long they’ve already been on the shelves. 

Personally, I would keep these spices as long as they still looked and smelled OK to me. 

Recipe

Homemade Italian Seasoning Substitute Recipe (No Salt)

Katherine Kyle

This Italian seasoning blend is quick to throw together and livens up any Italian-inspired recipe.  Use it to season pasta sauces, lasagne, and risotto.  This spice mix is free from salt and sugar giving you more flexibility when preparing your meals.

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2 minutes mins

Course Tasty Sauces & Sprinkles

Cuisine Italian

Servings 10

Calories 10.91 kcal

Equipment

• Jars
• Measuring Spoons

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 tablespoons Dried Basil
• 2 tablespoons Dried Marjoram
• 2 tablespoons Dried Parsley
• 2 tablespoons Dried Oregano
• 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder
• 1 tablespoon Onion Powder
• 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
• 1 teaspoon Dried Sage
• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper

Instructions

 

• Add all of the ingredients to a 200ml spice jar.
• Shake the jar to combine or stir using a fork.

Video

Notes

How Much Seasoning To Add To A Recipe

I would start by adding 1 tablespoon to a recipe that served 4 and then increase the quantity to suit your own tastebuds. 

If you are making a recipe that serves 1, start by adding just less than 1 teaspoon of seasoning to your recipe.

How To Make A Single Serving Of This Recipe

If you’re not ready to make a big batch of this seasoning mix, and you want to make enough spice blend for just 1 recipe that serves 4, here are the quantities you’ll need to use: 

• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon dried sage
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Nutrition

Serving: 4gCalories: 10.91kcalCarbohydrates: 2.46gProtein: 0.55gFat: 0.12gSaturated Fat: 0.04gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.04gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.02gSodium: 3.36mgPotassium: 54.84mgFiber: 0.93gSugar: 0.14gVitamin A: 2.67IUVitamin C: 0.82mgCalcium: 36.03mgIron: 1.17mg

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Other Homemade Seasoning Recipes

Here are some more of my favorite homemade seasoning recipes: 

• Mexican Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)
• BBQ Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)
• Chili Seasoning Recipe (2 Minutes, No Salt, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)
• Mixed Spice Recipe For Cake (2 Minutes, No Sugar, Vegan, Gluten Free)

Now it’s your turn to make magic in the kitchen.

• Author
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Katherine Kyle

BSc, PGCE, Certified Vegan Nutritionist at Magical Life Of Fruit

I help busy people make tasty, simple, plant-based, gluten free meals that are so filling that they don't need to snack at all.

When I switched to a vegan diet I lost 56 pounds (5 dress sizes) and all areas of my life were dramatically transformed.

Going vegan totally gave me my life back, saved me money, boosted my confidence, increased my energy, and helps me maintain a healthy weight.

Read my story here.

I have helped millions of people to do the same through my two websites,
GreenThickies.com and MagicalLifeOfFruit.com.

Send Katherine a message on Instagram,or email.

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