I am obsessed with ginger...
Candied ginger. Ginger candy. (Not the same thing, by the way.) Ginger Altoids. Pickled ginger. Ginger tea. Ginger beer. Gingerbread.
Ok, not so much the gingerbread because I don't always eat desserts, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis (because I'd rather drink beer than eat something sweet).
Anyway.
Always obsessed with all things ginger, and now?
Ginger juice.
I have not yet been brave enough to drink straight ginger juice and probably never will. I'm no expert (but I play one on my blog!) but I don't see a reason why you want to risk possibly burning spice-sized holes in your GI tract by shooting big gulps of straight ginger. Though ginger has long been used for medicinal purposes to ease nausea, fight inflammation among other ailments, it is more a flavor factor for me than it is an herbal medicine. Concentrated into juice, it is so potent, a scant quarter teaspoon added to a tall glass of any other juice will dramatically tip the taste scale toward spicy ginger.
But even if consuming ginger juice were strictly for health reasons, I can't imagine that you would need to drink more than a couple of tablespoons every day at most. That amount is small enough to add as an ingredient, again, to a larger amount of other juice. Or even a glass of sparkling water. If you need more ginger than that for your health, you should just swallow pills.
Ginger is one of the ingredients that helps me choke down my daily green juice. I add a 2-inch piece fresh each time I make a green or other "healthy" juice. But I've also taken to juicing entire "roots" of ginger (are they called branches? lobes? hands? ew, no. while "hand" makes sense, I can't call it a "hand of ginger"). In a tiny, airtight jar, ginger juice keeps in the refrigerator to be used over the course of a couple of days for:
How to Use Ginger Juice:
- Pineapple Ginger Lime and other juices
- my Daily Lately: mixed with sparkling water and a splash of lemon or lime for a light, natural "ginger ale."
- Moscow Mule: vodka + lime juice + ginger ale/beer (I don't drink cocktails much, but when I do...)
- Korean galbi/bulgogi
- tofu marinades and sauces like Herbivoracious's Caramel Tofu and my all-time favorite vegan protein, Real Food Daily's Ginger Marinated Tofu (I found the recipe to make it at home! Sharing soon!)
- ginger sorbet and ice cream
Are you obsessed with ginger? What are some ways you use it that I can try, too?
How to Make Ginger Juice
WHAT YOU NEED:
fresh ginger
microplane grater or box grater + cheesecloth
or a juicer
DIRECTIONS:
Rinse ginger. You don't have to peel it.
Grate ginger on a microplane grater or on the side of a box grater with the smallest holes set over a cutting board or a well-stablizied bowl.
Place all the grated ginger in the center of 2-3 layers of cheesecloth. Wrap up, and squeeze the ginger in the cheesecloth over a bowl to catch the juice. Squeeze hard to get as much juice as you possibly can out of the ginger.
Or you can send the rinsed, unpeeled ginger through a juicer.
Whether you grate and squeeze the ginger by hand or use a juicer, save the semi-dry grated ginger to use in recipes that call for grated or minced ginger. The grated ginger is not as strong anymore since you squoze most of the juice out, but the "essence" is still there.
The ginger pulp is easy to scoop out of the pulp container of the juicer. I also make sure to "scrape" pulp off the mesh screen.
Put it in a small air-tight container and try to use it as soon as possible, since it will eventually dry out.
Diane, A Broad says
I love the word "squoze."
soaring eagle says
This word should be in the english dictionary. I have used this word all my life as the past tense for squeeze LOL
Flora Refosco says
I love ginger as well.
But what do you use this juice for after squeezed?
thyme (sarah) says
I've never drank ginger juice but imagine it would be really good in a juice mixture. I do keep my ginger in the freezer because I can never use a 'hand' (oops) in one grasp (oops).
rooth says
My parents are OBSESSED with the health benefits of ginger. Me, not so much. But I did have a moscow mule that had a SLUG of ginger in it and it was wonderful
Kcho says
I love chewy ginger candy. I can finish a whole bag once I start I can't stop!
Brig says
Fresh ginger juice is great when you add a splash to any cocktail that calls for ginger ale or ginger beer. Kick it up a notch with a splash of freshly juiced ginger!
rightergeorge says
The outer skin of ginger should always be scraped off. Apparently it contains harmful substances.
James says
Why you'd ever think it'd burn holes in your GI track is beyond me. A shot of ginger juice and lemon is a warming digestive compliment.
Hurocrat says
Too much of a good thing - ginger promotes digestion, but if you go too far it's also a bowel irritant. In that respect it's a lot like capsaicin, and feels pretty much the same when you've overdone it.
comrade says
I have been shedding fresh ginger with a micro-plane and squeezing it through cheese cloth to get small quantities of (i guess fairly concentrated) ginger juice. i use no water in the process. i put the juice in a small bottle and refrigerate until use (mix with lime and simple syrup to create a rum mixer). A fine white (starch?) settles and forms a (difficult to dissolve) cake on the bottom of the jar. when i rinse the (now empty of juice) bottle, the resulting mixture still has a powerful ginger aroma/flavor.
questions:
- should i be trying to eliminate this component of the juice early on?
- should i be trying to use it?
- is my method of extraction and storage appropriate is there a better process that will still give me the strength I need?
Barb says
I make kombucha and would like to add ginger juice to the finished product.
Ethan Gaviria says
try at 10% ginger juice to 90% kombucha and be careful on the second ferment as the ginger adds substantially to the fizz rate ... for spicer i prefer 15% ginger juice ratio
SSE says
Fresh ginger juice breaks down the defenses of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It must be fresh or 80% juice to 20% strong alcohol. And, used with raw wildflower honey and lime in hot water, it is delicious medicine.
SSE says
Recipe for disease fighting: (with antibiotics or antiobiotic herbs/tinctures): 1/4 cup ginger juice with 12 ozs hot water, I T wildflower raw honey, the juice from 1/4 lime-droprind into the cup. Drink 4-6 times a day. Or in severe infections, six cup minimum. I pray it works, with my other stuff. Ten years & two surgeries is more than long enough?