How to Make Ginger Garlic Paste – Meal Prep

Now if you cook spicy food or Indian food like we do, you’ll often find recipes calling for ginger garlic paste or chilly ginger pastes. Or even if they don’t, most Indian recipes, vegetarian, meat, or fish will have copious amounts of ginger, garlic, and chillies in them.

So, instead of having to chop these ingredients fine every time, or having to grind them every time, it’s easier to just make a lot of ginger garlic paste at one go and store it in the refrigerator for use whenever we need it.

Yes, we make a lot of spicy ginger garlic paste at one go and store it up for use in curry recipes, just like we prepare amboshi in May for the monsoon and winter months. Saves time and energy!

What Ingredients do you Need to make the ginger garlic paste?

Quite simply, grind everything together and that’s it! Just think, you’re saving yourself from washing the food processor a dozen times. Or rather 20 times.

Just once is a pretty good exchange offer. So anyways, this is what you need, a few pods of garlic and ginger.

How To Make The Ginger Garlic Paste?

Clean your garlic and remove the skin and roughly chop the ginger to bits. Next, grind all these ingredients together in the mixer or food processor till they form a paste.

Refrigerate and use over the next few months. Whenever a recipe requires ginger-garlic paste or ginger-chilli paste, even if it’s just any two of these 3 ingredients, this gluten-free spicy paste is a quick substitute. It definitely beats store-bought pastes any day!

Cooking Tips and Tricks

• Cleaning the garlic means separating the garlic flakes from the pod and removing the skin.
• Don’t add salt to the mix. You could if you want to, but it will be difficult to measure out for recipes later. It’s just easier to add salt to the recipes during the final preparation of the dish.
• Ginger can be a bit difficult to grind, so remember to cut it into smaller pieces before putting it into the mixer.
• You can make different combinations, garlic + chillies, or chilies + ginger, or ginger + garlic + chilies, or just ginger + garlic too. 
• If you prefer, you can add a few tablespoons of lime juice to the paste before storing it.
• You can store this homemade ginger garlic paste in the freezer for up to 6 months or in the refrigerator for a few weeks. Store it in an airtight container.

Other Paste combinations

1. 1 part ginger to 2 parts garlic (since ginger has a stronger flavor)
2. 1 part ginger to 1 part chillies
3. 2 parts garlic to 1 part chillies
4. 1 part garlic, 1 part ginger and 1 part chilies

Questions about Homemade Ginger Garlic paste

For How Long Can I Store Ginger Garlic Paste?

You can store the paste in air-tight containers in a refrigerator for about 2-3 weeks or in a freezer for upto 6 months.

Do I Need To Remove The Ginger Skin?

You can remove the thicker part of the ginger skin by scraping it off when you wash it. A little skin is okay to use.

What Is Ginger Garlic Paste Used For?

Both garlic and ginger have various benefits. So adding the ginger garlic paste to any dish is good for you. We use it in the preparation of various curries or gravies. See the list of recipes we add it to down below.

Recipes where you can Substitute Different Ginger/Garlic/Chilli Paste Combinations for the Full Ingredients

• Indian Potato Veg called Batata Bhaji
• Goat Feet Curry aka Mutton Paya Khudi
• Spicy Brain Masala Recipe
• Homemade Tomato and Carrot Soup
• Goat Tripe Curry