Quick Pickled Ginger
41 Comments
Updated Oct 06, 2023
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There’s no doubt you’ll be making this quick pickled ginger constantly. Not only is it great for adding a fresh, punchy bite to meals, but it’s also one of the greatest superfoods beaming with endless benefits!
Pickled Ginger Benefits
From personal experience, I can honestly say that a pickled ginger a day keeps the doctor away. This recipe came to fruition when I wasn’t feeling a hundred percent. Bloated, unhappy digestion, tired, you know what I’m getting at. And my go-to solution for any sort of tummy symptoms is always ginger.
There’s so many beneficial things about ginger, but a few key points are that it’s a great antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredient. Plus it aids with digestion and detoxification. A seriously powerful superfood!
But instead of blending it into ginger shots or Jamu juice, for this recipe you’ll consume it in whole, raw form. Bonus – when it’s pickled it becomes an even better probiotic. So long story short, after enjoying this pickled ginger recipe, I was back to feeling as good as new!
Pickled Ginger Ingredients
Pickled items follow a pretty basic formula with vinegar, sweetener, salt, and hot water (like my quick pickled red onions). Once you’ve got this down, I guarantee you’ll be pickling all sorts of things! But for this ginger version, I have a few notes.
- First, see if you can find young ginger rather than mature ginger. If not, don’t worry – just take a look at the notes below!
- Secondly, rice vinegar is the traditional ingredient used. But you could always sub apple cider vinegar if you’re grain-free.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
Young Ginger vs Mature Ginger
I mention above to use young ginger for this recipe because it’s less pungent, fibrous, and tough compared to mature ginger. But the reality is that it’s hard to find young ginger (and often can only be found certain times of the year).
If you can’t find it, try to at least get bigger pieces of ginger (I find better options at Japanese markets) as it’s easier to thinly slice. You can always increase the sweetener a bit if it’s too spicy, but I like it spicy!
And if you’re wondering… why is some pickled ginger is pink? The answer is simple. You’ll usually find pink pickled ginger in sushi restaurants that use very young ginger with pink tips. And when pickled, the pink tips color the entire batch. But truth, some other establishments fake this look with additional food coloring.
How To Make Pickled Ginger (aka Gari or Sushi Ginger)
You’ll first peel and thinly slice the ginger with either a vegetable peeler or mandoline. I prefer a peeler as you can slice it more thinly, though it does take a bit longer.
And whether you prefer to slice with the grain or against the grain, that’s totally up to you. I find that it doesn’t make much of a difference.
How to Store Pickled Ginger
Container wise, I’m using my favorite Weck Jar. But any small glass container will work as long as it can be sealed tightly! Once you’ve found one, add all the ingredients to your jar and stir it up until it’s nicely mixed together.
This will sit at room temperature for about one hour, then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours to give it enough time to pickle!
Helpful tip: Always use fresh utensils when taking the ginger out of the jar! This will make sure you don’t introduce any new bacteria into the container, and make it last longer in the fridge.
Ways to Serve Pickled Ginger
Of course, this is a must-have when eating sashimi or any type of sushi. But there’s plenty of other ways to enjoy pickled ginger! Here’s a few notes to spur up some ideas.
- Stir Fries: Although fresh ginger is typically used in Asian stir fries (like my garlic ginger bok choy), you can also dice up pickled ginger.
- Protein Bowls: Depending on the flavors happening in your protein bowl, a small spoonful of pickled ginger is always welcome. This will go great with baked salmon or chicken bowls of some sort.
- Drinks: You can add this to hot teas or even cocktails!
And how do I most often eat this recipe? Plain! I literally just take some chopsticks or a fork to the jar and remove a few pieces of the pickled ginger to enjoy throughout the week. It really does keep my tummy happy!
Storage Tips
From a meal prep standpoint, this is a great ingredient to have on hand to jazz up your meals. Just store the jar or container in the fridge for up to 2 months!
More Ginger Recipes
I say grab a few extra pieces of ginger while you’re at the market. They work beautifully to create these delicious recipes:
- Candied Ginger
- Soy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings
- Carrot Ginger Soup
- Scallops with Citrus Ginger Sauce
- Pineapple Turmeric Smoothie
- Cucumber Melon Gazpacho with Ginger Shrimp
If you love ginger, this pickled version is a no brainer. So give it a try and let me know your thoughts in a comment below!
Quick Pickled Ginger
Description
Ingredients
- 10 ounces ginger (young ginger preferred)
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- ½ cup boiling hot water
- ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Prep the ginger. Peel and thinly slice the ginger with a vegetable peeler or mandoline (see my tips above).
- Add the ginger. Place the thinly sliced ginger into a glass storage container.
- Add everything else. Add the vinegar, hot water, honey, and salt, then stir to combine everything together.
- Let it pickle! Place the lid on the jar and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours before enjoying. Always make sure to remove the ginger with fresh utensils, to not introduce bacteria into the container and allow it to store longer.
Lisa’s Tips
- This recipe makes about 1 cup of pickled ginger. I’ve put the serving size at 2 tablespoons (which makes it a great nibble throughout the day), but you can certainly enjoy more than this amount in recipes.
Nutrition
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Caution. This one is addictive… it’s so good.
They sure are!
THANKS, loved it!!!
Glad you enjoyed this quick pickled ginger recipe Terry!
How about liquid stevia for this recipe? If ok, how much would you suggest? Like many, I need to avoid sugar & have liquid stevia on hand.
Thank you!
Hi! I was so excited to find your recipe, because so many commercial pickled gingers have extra chemicals in them. I don’t think I could consider this quick; it took about an hour and a half to peel and thinly slice the ginger. I was glad about your note that a peeler slices more finely than a mandoline, so I used my peeler. It was pretty difficult, but I ended up with a bunch of thin ginger slices; some very skinny and some a little wider. You mention young ginger a few times, but how do you know if it is young ginger? Does it look different? I’m sure mine wasn’t young; in fact, it was probably close to senior citizen age, with all of the whiskers sticking out. But I pickled it according to your instructions, and the brine seemed perfect. But 24 hours later, the slices are very bitter, which was not what I expected. Where did I go wrong?
For health and energy boast at the gym I have noticed a difference between taking and not taking… can’t wait to make my own ..
Excited for you to try this homemade pickled ginger!
Can this be frozen?
I’m sure you could do that, though I haven’t yet tried it.
How long will this keep in fridge, assuming clean fork used each time?
This quick pickled ginger can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 months!
This is an amazingly easy way to get that Japanese restaurant pickled ginger at home. I love it! Thank you so much!
Homemade pickled ginger is the way to go!
I will surely try to do it and excited for the taste test. 😁 Thanks for the recipe.
Hope you enjoy!
Certainly easy to make. I’m looking forward to the big tasting 😀
Hope you enjoy it Shona!
Can I use white vinegar in this recipe
Yes, but just note that it may change the flavor as white vinegar is sharper and more pungent.
Yummy!
Thank you for the clear instructions, so helpful ! 💜
Loving the jar you used. Do you recall the brand & size?
I’m using the 1/2L Weck Tulip Jar :)
Pro tip. Don’t peel the ginger, you lose too much. Scrape the skin off with a spoon. Very easy and not much ginger lost.
Everything you do is perfect..just wanted to know if you do sushi 🍣
That’s definitely on my to-do list! But I do have a poke bowl recipe :)
Love this so much. It beats the store-bought one hands down. We eat a lot of Ahi Tuna in many different ways and this goes with it perfectly. I also eat it as a snack with sliced apples. Just delicious! I personally don’t add as much honey, but that’s just me.
Homemade pickled ginger is the way to go!
I’m hoping to try this soon. My question is can it be canned? Although I would have to buy a lot of ginger. Just asking though.
Hi Robin – I haven’t tried canning it, but I don’t see why not. Let us know how that turns out!
I just started making smoothies (something I never thought I would do)! I’m 78 and am trying to get in better shape (primarily strength and cardio PLUS lose some weight-using mostly yes2next. On Utube! Perfect for me right now. Anyway, I put some of these pickled ginger in my smoothies!🙂 Also using the book, “The Whole Body Reset”. . FOCUS ON protein spread out over the day. So, just want to feel better
Hi Lisa. Thank you for your pickled ginger recipe. I love pickled ginger. I’m pre-diabetic and try to stay away from sugar. Can this recipe be made with using no Honey or maple syrup?
You can omit the sugar, but it’ll be extremely tart without it.
Mamie, you may want to try agave – it has a much lower glycemic index “Agave nectar has a GI rating of about 17, lower than that of both honey (60-74) and white sugar (68). As such, agave nectar was thought to be a better choice for diabetics, who must carefully monitor their sugar and glycemic intake to avoid blood sugar spikes and dips.”
WAS thought to be. Key is WAS.
Agave is high fructose syrup. It doesn’t directly impact ur sugar becuz it’s shunted to ur liver where it ruins IT. Fatty liver disease. It still spikes ur insulin which is the actual problem in diabetes, etc. hyperinsulinemia.
Thanks for sharing this recipe of ginger pickle.
Thank you for sharing this simple yet amazing recipe!!
Recipe wise, it’s a good one. Quite easy to make, except slicing the ginger. The one I had wasn’t young..probably. Personally, it’s not my preference because the ginger is too spicy for my taste, but if you enjoy spicy things, I do recommend it. It has a unique flavor and interesting texture.
I will try it! I’m like you Lisa I will eat the pickled ginger out of the jar! Thank you!
Thank you for this recipe!! I’m a big ginger fan and looking for ways to add extra flavor to my foods. I’m curious if I could use powdered stevia in place of the honey or maple syrup. My household only uses stevia as a sweetener because of my special needs son. Stevia is the only sweetener that doesn’t affect him so we don’t bring other sugars (natural or otherwise) into the house. I appreciate your thoughts on this! Thank you again!!
Since hot water is used in this recipe, powdered stevia should be okay when stirred right away with the hot water so it dissolves.
Did you make this pickled ginger with stevia –
and, if so, how much did you use and in what form (liquid or powder)?
I’d love to try this pickled ginger, but don’t eat sugar.
Many thanks!
Barbara