The best time to make Ginger-Garlic Paste is late summer, when garlic is plentiful, good quality, local and cheap. Use 2 large heads of garlic and equal amounts of ginger for a medium jar. Garlic bulbs can also be frozen. A good strategy for Autumn is to make a couple of jars of Garlic Ginger Paste and also freeze 1 or 2 kgs of garlic, broken into cloves, to supplement the paste. Adjust the amounts to suit your family’s consumption of garlic

You can also see how to make Coriander Paste too. And Chilli Paste. Explore other ways to preserve goodies for Winter.

This paste is fairly common in parts of India, with households making it every morning. Traditionally ground by hand, it is now most commonly ground in electric wet-dry grinders. Outside of India it is made in the food processor or spice grinder, but the texture is a little different. It keeps well in the fridge and much longer in the freezer, so make some when garlic and ginger are at their peak of quality and are cheapest in price.

There is some concern about the safety of storing garlic. Please do your research and make up your own mind. In any case use the paste quickly, keep the paste refrigerated at all times, and freeze any paste that you are not going to use within a week. It is good to freeze it in icecube trays, the store the cubes in ziplock bags. The cubes are conveniently sized for adding to dishes.

Adjust your quantities to suit.

Ginger-Garlic Paste

approx 0.5 cup peeled and chopped ginger

approx 0.5 cup peeled garlic, chopped roughly

0.5 tspn salt



Grind the ginger and garlic to a smooth paste, adding only as much water as needed. Add the salt if you are not using it immediately. Pack into a sterilised jar with a non reactive lid. Store in the fridge (NEVER at room temperature), and use as needed. Freeze any that you want to keep for longer than a week.

recipe notes

For longer lasting paste, avoid the use of water. My trick is to take whole cloves of garlic and roughly chopped ginger and break it down with my hand held immersion blender. Then I transfer it to the spice grinder in two batches to produce a nice creamy paste without any water.

Store in the fridge and use the paste quickly. Never leave it out of the fridge. Use within a week – any additional paste can be frozen.

To Make Ginger Paste

Make the paste as above, without the Garlic.

To Make Garlic Paste

Make the paste as above, without the ginger.

Reminder: There is some concern about the safety of storing garlic. Please do your research and make up your own mind. In any case use the paste quickly, keep the paste refrigerated at all times, and freeze any paste that you are not going to use within a week. It is good to freeze it in icecube trays, the store the cubes in ziplock bags. The cubes are conveniently sized for adding to dishes.

A great winter staple.

This article is part of the Indian Essentials series. Read the other articles here.

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