Ginger-garlic paste is fresh ginger and garlic ground together, usually in equal amounts, with a little salt and oil. It is the starting point of countless curries, marinades and biryanis in South Asia.
What it is¶
Ginger-garlic paste (Hindi adrak lehsun ka paste) is exactly what it sounds like: fresh ginger and garlic ground together to a smooth paste, usually in roughly equal quantities, with a pinch of salt and a spoonful of oil to help it blend and keep. It is not a finished sauce but a building block. Many North Indian, Pakistani and Hyderabadi recipes call for a tablespoon or two, fried after the onions and before the ground spices, and it is essential in marinades for tandoori and tikka dishes and in biryani.
Home cooks in South Asia typically grind a week's worth at a time, and ready-made jars are sold in every Indian grocery.
Origins¶
Ginger and garlic are both ancient ingredients in South Asian cooking, and they have been ground together on the stone slab and roller (sil batta) or in a mortar for as long as those tools have existed. What changed in the twentieth century was scale and convenience: the electric wet grinder and mixer-grinder made a week's batch quick, and commercial jarred pastes, preserved with acid, salt and oil, became common from the late twentieth century.
The pairing is not unique to India — Chinese cooking fries ginger, garlic and spring onion as a base — but the ready-made mixed paste is a distinctively South Asian habit.
What goes in it¶
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Fresh ginger | Warm, citrusy pungency |
| Garlic | Deep, savoury pungency |
| Salt | Seasoning; slows spoilage |
| Neutral oil | Helps grinding and forms a protective layer |
| Lemon juice or vinegar (optional) | Acidity; improves keeping and colour |
| Green chillies or turmeric (optional) | For a ginger-garlic-chilli paste or colour |
Flavour¶
Raw, the paste is sharply pungent and hot on the tongue. Fried in oil it changes completely: the raw smell of garlic disappears, and the paste becomes sweet, nutty and savoury, forming the aromatic background of the dish. Undercooking it is the most common mistake in Indian home cooking — the finished curry has a harsh, raw-garlic edge.
💡 Fry until the raw smell goes
After adding ginger-garlic paste to the onions, fry for 1–2 minutes on a medium heat, stirring, until the sharp raw smell has gone and the paste is lightly golden. Add a splash of water if it starts to stick. Then add the ground spices.
How to use it¶
- Curry bases: fried after onions in almost any North Indian or Pakistani curry, from chicken karahi to rogan josh.
- Marinades: with yoghurt, lemon and tandoori masala for tandoori chicken and tikka; with yoghurt and spices for biryani meat.
- Dals and vegetables: in tadka dal and many vegetable dishes, though some regional cuisines use it sparingly or not at all.
- Beyond India: a spoonful starts stir-fries, soups and marinades quickly.
Making it at home¶
About 200 g · 10 minutes
You need
- 100 g fresh ginger, peeled (a teaspoon edge scrapes off the skin easily)
- 100 g garlic (about 2 heads), peeled
- ½ tsp salt
- 1–2 tbsp neutral oil
- 1 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar (optional)
Method
- Roughly chop the ginger across the fibres into small pieces so the blender can deal with them.
- Blend the ginger, garlic, salt and oil (and acid, if using) in a small blender jar or spice grinder, scraping down, to a fine paste. Add a spoonful of water only if necessary; less water means longer keeping.
- Spoon into a clean, dry jar, smooth the top and cover with a thin film of oil. Refrigerate, or freeze in ice-cube trays.
Variations¶
- Ratio: equal weights is the common rule; some cooks use more garlic for meat dishes and more ginger for vegetables and dals.
- Ginger-garlic-chilli paste: with green chillies, common in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
- Separate pastes: Hyderabadi and Mughlai recipes sometimes call for ginger and garlic pastes separately, added at different moments.
- Minimal-garlic cooking: some Jain and Brahmin traditions avoid garlic (and onion) entirely, using ginger alone, often with asafoetida.
Buying and storing¶
Homemade ginger-garlic paste keeps about a week in the fridge in a clean, dry jar topped with oil; use a dry spoon each time. For longer, freeze it in ice-cube trays and store the cubes in a bag for up to 3 months — they can go straight into the pan.
⚠️ Raw garlic in oil
Raw garlic mixed with oil and kept warm can support Clostridium botulinum. Always refrigerate homemade paste, never keep it at room temperature, and discard it if it smells off or fizzes. Adding a little lemon juice or vinegar increases the margin of safety. A green or blue tinge, which can develop when garlic meets acid, is a harmless chemical reaction, not spoilage.