17 Ginger Recipes That Are Fresh and Delicious

Like clockwork, the year turns and there’s an uptick in demand for everything ginger. Maybe that’s because its refreshing and astringent heat feels like the perfect foil to the excesses of holiday eating and drinking that came before. And the intuitive acknowledgement of its health benefits, from aiding digestion to quelling nausea to contributing tons of antioxidants to the diet. But truly, it’s a wonderful ingredient for freshening things up and adding tons of flavor without relying on an extra pat of butter or glug of heavy cream. Of course ginger is a starring player in the baker’s pantry, but as the entire eastern hemisphere knows—the root originated in Asia—ginger lends an irresistible quality to savory dishes as well, layering on an extra dimension in combination with garlic and/or onion, particularly shallot or scallion. A fresh knob costs just a dollar or so, so make a point of tossing one into your shopping cart to keep on hand. It's easy to grate your own ginger but, if you're looking for a shortcut, ground ginger is nearly as potent and has many uses, so grab one of those, too. Your meals will thank you.

A good place to start? Homemade salad dressing. And, yes, it’s that dressing. You know, the one that you would happily spoon up from the bottom of your salad at your favorite sushi or hibachi joint? White miso is the key, imparting a creamy saltiness, but so is that combo of carrot and ginger, which will have you craving salad on the regular.

Popping a steak into a marinade is the ultimate gift from your present self to your future self—just a few minutes of effort now rewards you with a delicious main that cooks in a snap, later. Ginger brings a gentle heat to a marinade, particularly if added in slices that steep in the liquid but don’t get eaten in the final dish. Here, the aromatic teams up with garlic and sesame oil for a steak that can go in so many directions—eaten over rice with some stir-fried bok choy or gai lan, or paired with a baked potato and creamed spinach.

The sauce is the star here, and not just because you can make it in under 5 minutes. It contains ginger and other aromatics, yes, but also fresh spinach, soy sauce and lime juice, so it gives you a new vibrant green option besides the usual pesto or green goddess. Enoki mushrooms are a fun choice here, as they mimic the texture of the noodles; black and white sesame seeds have a similar pop.

Blending aromatics, like ginger, shallots, garlic and scallion, along with soy sauce, sugar and fresh lime juice takes a page from the piquant marinades of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Here, Bobby Flay uses this combination to infuse peel-on shrimp with the deepest flavor. Grilling with the peels on achieves several things: ensuring that they won’t stick to the grill, a bit of protection against drying out and the fun of a peel-and-eat session with your favorite people.

This Bundt cake is inspired by a Dark and Stormy, the cocktail that combines rum and ginger beer, and gets a double kick of ginger from the fresh stuff grated right into the cake batter and into the glaze. Some chopped toasted pecans on top add lots of texture (and help the cake turn out of the pan more easily). It tastes even better over the next few days, so no worries that you don’t have enough people around to eat a whole Bundt; it will become breakfast, snack and dessert as long as you have it.

Peach is classic in a bellini, that fancier cousin to the mimosa. But what’s not is ginger. If you ever found these brunch staples to be a tad on the sweet side, ginger is the key. Its subtle heat will balance everything beautifully.

The move of pouring hot oil over ginger and scallions to bloom their aroma and flavor is a genius one that we have Cantonese cooking to thank. This is the way to go anytime you have a simply-cooked protein that needs a zhuzh, from the poached chicken suggested in the recipe to steamed white fish. If it drifts over to the other steamed items on your plate, like some dumplings or white rice, that will be a welcome serendipity, too.

Molly Yeh combines the best of several worlds in this one salmon main. The skin is seared until crispy and the Chinese-inspired marinade, spiked with the American touch of maple syrup, becomes a sticky-sweet glaze on the cooked fish, which flakes off unctuously as a result of the cooking method. Yes, you can substitute Dijon mustard for the hot Chinese mustard as many home cooks note in the comments, but it’s worth trying it as written at least once. In combination with the other ingredients, the marinade is not too hot at all, but a perfectly balanced combination of heat, sweet, fresh and savory.

The contrast of cool and juicy cucumber combined with heat in garlicky salads is beloved in cuisines from Szechuan to Mexican to Korean. This version gains heat not only from the ginger but from jalapeño. Note that the ginger here is pickled; you can find jars of pickled ginger in Asian markets, sometimes in the refrigerated section but sometimes not. You’ll love this as a palate-cleansing starter or even as a side vegetable to eat with a main course and some rice.

This golden soup which tastes like a health elixir in a bowl gains its hue from roasted sweet potato and turmeric. The orzo gives it an incredibly comforting texture, and tofu makes it a complete meal. No one will accuse it of being ho-hum—those fresh chile slices floating on top will wake up the palate!

If you haven’t had the combination of ginger and pear before, you’re in for a treat. The slightly spicy edge of the ginger brightens up the subtle fruity-floral notes of the pear, here, beneath a brown sugar oat topping that lends a textural layer to this flavor party. Everyone will love this comforting and warming but sophisticated dessert—the kids will love it, and any guests you serve it to will love it as well.

Creamy vegetable soups tend to be a bit subtle—but not this one! There’s so much going on here, from the earthy sweetness of carrots punctuated with the heat of ginger, but also chunks of roasted squash and broccoli, and is there anything at all that homemade croutons couldn’t improve? Coconut milk and pureed beans in the broth make this soup rich and filling as well.

This is seriously our favorite kind of cooking. Throw together the marinade the night before, then let it—and the grill—do all the work. Here, Guy Fieri opts for boneless thighs for quick cooking, but keeps that skin on, because, particularly when marinaded, it does magical things on the grill, caramelizing and basting the meat, and creating a crispy-sticky shell.

Poached chicken becomes a blank canvas on which pungent sauces can really ka-pow. The sauce has plenty of grated ginger and shallot for heat and savoriness, but the watercress also is an unexpected and peppery element that plays off the clean flavors of the dish beautifully. This dinner can be a re-set when you want something light—but it also tastes wonderfully indulgent with a glass of white wine.

This steak and noodle salad combo is a one-dish wonder, inspired by Vietnamese and Thai preparations but endlessly riffable (Katie Lee calls for udon noodles here, but suggests spaghetti as a fine substitution—as truly any rice noodle, bean thread, soba or long Italian noodle would also work). It’s supremely light, but given just enough rich components, namely, the steak and avocado, that will delight while you’re eating it and keep you full long after. Don’t be daunted by the length of that ingredient list—you’ll notice a lot of repeats in the marinade and in the dressing, so it’s not as long as it looks.

If you missed the great Basque cheesecake craze of 2021, we’re here to catch you up. The Basque style, originating in the coastal town of San Sabastian in the Basque region of Spain, is unlike any New York or Italian-style cheesecakes you may have had. For one, there’s no crust, and in its place is an almost burnt top, that evokes all those caramelly flavors that you associate with flan. Here, Geoffrey Zakarian infuses the dessert with lemon and ginger, so that those who already feel all “been there” can try something new. It’s outrageously good and yet the flavors that the lemon and ginger impart are still somewhat mild, so even if you’re a newbie this is sure to become your go-to.