How to Make and Store Ginger-Garlic Paste

Almost every savoury Pakistani recipe asks for ginger and garlic, usually as a paste, and usually a tablespoon or more of each. Peeling and grating them fresh every time is slow, and shop-bought paste often tastes sour or flat from preservatives. That’s why most Pakistani kitchens make a big batch once every week or two and keep it in the fridge or freezer.

Here’s how to do it properly.

Equal parts, or separate?

Many households blend ginger and garlic together in roughly equal amounts, because so many recipes use them in the same quantity. That’s convenient, and it’s what we recommend for most people.

The case for keeping them separate is flexibility. Some dishes want more garlic than ginger, like garlic chicken or mash daal, and some want more ginger, like karahi finishes and certain qormas. If you cook a wide range of dishes, make two jars.

What you need

• 250 g fresh ginger
• 250 g garlic (about 4 to 5 heads)
• 2–3 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• A blender or food processor

Choose ginger that’s firm with thin, shiny skin, not wrinkled or fibrous. Garlic should be firm, with no green shoots in the cloves.

Method

1. Peel the ginger by scraping it with the edge of a spoon, which takes the skin off without wasting the flesh underneath. Roughly chop it.
2. Peel the garlic. The quickest way for a large amount is to separate the cloves, soak them in warm water for 15 minutes, and then the skins slip off easily.
3. Blend the ginger and garlic with the salt and oil. Add a spoonful or two of water only if the blender won’t turn; the less water, the longer the paste keeps.
4. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides, for about 2 minutes.

Storing in the fridge

Spoon the paste into a clean, completely dry glass jar and press it down. Pour a thin layer of oil over the top to seal it from air. Always use a dry spoon. Stored this way, it keeps for 2 to 3 weeks in the fridge.

Storing in the freezer

For longer storage, freeze it. The easiest method is an ice-cube tray: fill each cube with about a tablespoon of paste, freeze until solid, then tip the cubes into a freezer bag. One cube equals one tablespoon, and you can drop it straight into the pan from frozen. Frozen paste keeps for 4 to 6 months.

Why does garlic paste turn green or blue?

This alarms people, but it’s harmless. Garlic contains sulphur compounds that can react with traces of metal or with acid and turn blue-green, especially if the garlic is young or the paste sits in a metal container. It’s safe to eat and doesn’t change the taste much. To reduce it, use a glass jar, add the salt and oil before blending, and use mature garlic.

How much to use

When a recipe says “1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste”, use 1 tablespoon of your combined paste. If it lists them separately, as most recipes on this site do, use 1 tablespoon of combined paste for each 1½ teaspoons of each. In other words, a tablespoon of ginger paste plus a tablespoon of garlic paste equals 2 tablespoons of the combined paste.

Cooking it properly

Ginger-garlic paste needs to be fried briefly before wet ingredients go in, usually for a minute or so after the onions, until its raw smell disappears. Undercooked, it gives a sharp, slightly bitter taste to the whole dish. Because it can catch, add a splash of water if it starts sticking, and keep stirring. That brief frying is the start of the bhunai, and it matters.

With a jar of paste ready, everyday dishes like chicken karahi, chicken qorma and chana masala become much quicker to put together.