Make these frozen ginger cubes ahead of time and you’ll always have just what you need when a recipe calls for fresh ginger! Your future self already thanks you.
One of the most frustrating things about cooking is when you have everything you need to make a recipe except one key ingredient. For me, that’s usually fresh ginger. I go to my stash and discover the piece I bought last time is withered and wrinkled and useless. So now I prep fresh ginger and freeze it, and I always have it whenever it’s needed. There are a few ingredients that make sense to prep ahead in bulk, and this is one of them. I hope you’ll find this as useful as I have. Let’s get started!
Look, the ginger is holding hands! It’s so cute.
Do you have to peel fresh ginger?
Once I watched a show about Indian cooking on the Food Network, and the chef/host said that the peel of ginger root carries a lot of the flavor and that I didn’t need to peel it off. That advice and also some googling have told me that it’s not necessary to peel ginger. When I prep ginger root to freeze, I peel off any rough/knobby bits and scrub off any dirt, then chop it into 1″ pieces. Otherwise, I leave the peel on and it’s fine.
The nice thing about freezing fresh ginger is that you portion it after you grind it up, so you can do as little or as much as you want. For me, I got 4 clusters of ginger root and chopped them up. It filled up my food processor about 1/3 of the way. The goal is to prep enough so that you have your ginger needs covered for quite a while. And doing too little might make it tough for your processing device of choice to break it down. I use my food processor, but you can use a mini chopper, blender, or I suppose if you were REALLY bored you could grate it by hand. For me, the food processor does the job perfectly.
Process the ginger until it’s broken down into very small pieces. You don’t have to get it perfectly smooth.
Spread it out on parchment paper into a rectangle-ish shape. Score it into 1″ pieces with a bench scraper, butter knife, whatever you can find that can make straight lines. Stash it on a flat surface like a sheet pan in the freezer for an hour.
Now you can easily break the ginger into 1″ chunks and store them in the freezer. Careful chopping and measuring led me to the conclusion that a 1″ chunk of ground fresh ginger is equal to the 1 inch knob of ginger that is so often called for in recipes. It’s super easy to break the cubes up and use less if needed.
I’ve only had this ginger prepped in my freezer for a couple of weeks now, and it’s already come in handy several times. I’ve used it in vegan tikka masala, kabocha squash soup, sweet potato peanut sauce, and most recently in vegan gingerbread blender muffins. Every time I’ve reached for it, I’ve been so thankful to my past self for making it possible for me to have fresh ginger at the ready. And in case you were wondering, no, freezing doesn’t affect the flavor.
I’ve got many more prep tutorials where this comes from, and I plan to share them soon! I’d love to know if you find this kind of thing helpful. Let me know in the comments! I hope if you make these, you’ll find ginger that holds hands too. 🙂
Frozen Ginger Cubes
Equipment
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 4-6 pieces fresh ginger root chopped into 1" pieces
Instructions
- Scrub ginger root to remove any dirt or debris
- Peel off any discolored or rough skin
- Chop ginger into 1" pieces and add to the bowl of a food processor
- Process ginger until it is broken down into fine pieces
- Spread out processed ginger onto parchment paper and form into the shape of a square or rectangle
- Score into 1" pieces and place in freezer for 1 hour
- Break apart into individual pieces and store in a freezer safe ziploc bag or container.
These type of ideas blow my mind, it’s so amazing how you came up with this! I don’t use ginger much, but this would be so convenient anytime I needed to reach for it. It is also motivation to use it more, nice job!
Well I don’t know about mind-blowing, but I do love a good prep hack and have to share the ones that work for me. I’m happy to share some of mine with you, I’ve got tons! <3
This is a timely tip for me! Last week, I ordered fresh ginger in my grocery delivery, and received more than I expected, and the roots are very small and thin.. I’ve been thinking that there was no way I could peel it, and didn’t quite know how to proceed. Going to prep it your way right now!
Love your ginger prep idea, also…I had no idea I didn’t need to peel ginger. Thanks for the info, my life will certainly be a bit easier!
Love, love, love this idea! Keep ‘em coming! Now I just need tips on how remember they’re there and to keep things from getting lost in the freezer
Thank you for this tip! Love it. Can’t wait for more great tips from you.