SpicesBite

Ginger-Garlic

Also known as: adrak-lehsun paste

SpicesBite editorialLast reviewed September 2026

What Ginger-Garlic is

Not a single botanical spice but a fresh paste of roughly equal parts ginger and garlic, blended together and used as the flavor base of the overwhelming majority of South Asian savory cooking, added early and cooked out before the rest of the masala is built.

A blended paste of fresh ginger, the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, and fresh garlic, the bulb of Allium sativum, usually pounded or blitzed together with a little water or oil. Making it fresh from the two whole ingredients gives a noticeably brighter result than a jarred paste.

Taste profile

Sharp, pungent and almost unpleasantly raw straight from the blender — the 'raw smell' that recipes explicitly cook out is real and detectable. Once fried in hot fat for a couple of minutes it mellows into a rounded, sweet, savory depth that underlies the whole finished dish.

Forms to buy

  • Fresh, made at home — Pounded or blended just before cooking; the strongest flavor.
  • Ready-made jarred paste — A common shortcut, kept in the fridge for weeks.
  • Whole ginger and garlic — Bought separately and prepared as each recipe calls for.

Halal note

Fresh ginger and garlic carry no halal concern. Jarred ready-made pastes commonly include vinegar or citric acid as a preservative, both halal, though it is still worth checking the label on any pre-made version for added stabilizers of unclear origin.

Dishes that use it

  • Butter Chicken — Tandoori chicken finished in a tomato and cream gravy — mild, and deliberately so.
  • Chicken Curry — The everyday bone-in curry — browned onion, tomato and spice, with no cream.
  • Lamb Curry — Bone-in lamb cooked slowly until the sauce thickens around it.

Cuisines

  • Indian — Not one cuisine but a continent's worth, unified by how spices are handled rather than by what is cooked.
  • Indo-Nepali — The most common restaurant format abroad: a Nepali kitchen cooking a mostly Indian menu, with momo on the side.
  • Nepali — Lighter, sourer and less oily than its neighbours, built around a tray of rice, lentils and greens.

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