How to Use Fresh Ginger

Fresh ginger is a fast and easy way to get flavor into your food. It may be easier to use the powdered stuff but the special kick you get from fresh is worth an extra minute. Here’s how to use fresh ginger, peel it and get it into a form that will flavor a sauce, stir fry, veggies, rice quinoa and so much more.

How Grate Fresh Ginger

• Peel the ginger using the edge of a spoon. The folds and crevices make it difficult to use a vegetable peeler. A spoon can get in and around all those little spaces.
• Then use a microplane (pictured above) or the finest side of your box grater to grate the ginger. That’s it. Its’s ready to flavor any recipe.

Gluten-Free Recipes with Ginger

• Make an easy Thai coconut sauce by combining a can of coconut milk with 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger, 1 stalk of chopped lemon grass, 2 tsps agave or your choice of sweetener, 2 tsps Thai Fish sauce and 1/2 tsp salt. Simmer it gently for 15 minutes and strain for a sauce that is perfect on fish, chicken or rice.
• For a more complex coconut sauce add the zest of 2 limes and a pinch of cayenne pepper to the recipe above. The cayenne pepper will not make it spicy. It will just act as a flavor enhancer to make all the other flavors pop.
• Saute 2 tsps fresh grated ginger, 1 clove grated garlic (grate on a microplane) in 1 Tbsp oil for 30 seconds. Add 2 cups cooked rice, 1/2 tsp salt, and a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and stir until it is combined. This ginger-garlic rice dish goes great with Asian dishes.

• Add fresh grated ginger to your favorite vanilla cake recipe for a perfect ginger cake. Here’s my recipe for Gluten-Free Ginger Cupcakes. Double this recipe and it will make a 2 layer cake.
• These Ginger Lace Cookies have fresh grated ginger in the batter and chunks of crystallized ginger for the perfect kick!