How to Prep Ginger (Peel, Slice, Mince, Grate)

To prep ginger, scrape off the thin skin with the edge of a spoon (it gets into the knobbly bits a peeler misses), then cut it however the recipe needs: coins for soups, julienne for steamed fish, mince for stir-fries, or grate for a quick paste. Freeze any leftover knob and grate it straight from frozen.

Ginger is a backbone aromatic across Chinese, Thai and Indonesian cooking, so a few quick prep moves save you fiddling every time. The spoon trick alone makes peeling painless.

Step by step

1. Peel with a spoon. Hold the knob and scrape the skin off with a teaspoon edge. Minimal waste, gets into the grooves.
2. Slice coins. Cut across the fibres into thin discs for soups and braises.
3. Julienne. Stack a few coins and cut into thin matchsticks for steamed fish and stir-fry.
4. Mince. Pile the julienne, rock-chop fine, just like you would to mince garlic.
5. Grate. Run it over a fine grater for an instant paste in marinades and dressings.
6. Freeze the rest. Bag the leftover knob and grate from frozen; no peeling needed.

Common mistakes

• Peeling with a knife and binning half the ginger.
• Slicing with the grain, leaving stringy fibres.
• Letting it scorch; like garlic, ginger burns quickly on high heat.
• Buying a huge knob you can’t use, when freezing solves that entirely.

Do I always need to peel ginger?

Not for everything. Young ginger has thin skin you can leave on, and grated frozen ginger needs no peeling at all. Peel mainly when you want clean coins or julienne on show, like in a steamed fish, where stray skin looks untidy.

A fine grater or microplane is the quickest route to ginger paste, like a decent microplane fine grater (affiliate link) that handles ginger, garlic and zest.

Once your aromatics are ready, tell OneToCook what’s in your fridge for tonight’s recipe. See the technique glossary for more, and learn how to peel garlic fast next.