Ground up and dried in cookies. Sliced and sauteed with onions and chicken. Peeled crush and mixed with pineapple and pork chunks. I could go on, but you get the idea. There are millions of ways to use it.

Chop and add to a marinade, slice and add to a stir fry, grated with lemon over fish....sliced and put into your cup of tea....or steeped in the tea and poured over ice, with a twist of lime.
And candied, slice and cook in a sugar syrup...good chopped up in cookies and sweet breads. Chopped ginger is wonderful in a vinaigrette for a salad with fruit...

Ginger, originated from the Far East.

You know, lemon is used in all seafood here in the Western world? Ginger is used in all seafood the same way in Asian cooking.

dcarch

Do realize that there are a lot of plants of various species that are commonly called 'ginger' but only one, Zingiber officinale, that produces the edible ginger root.

gardengal - There are several species of Zingiber that are edible. I grew three of them in the ground when I lived in South Florida and they all had a different flavor.

Not to pick nits but the ginger one finds in the grocery store and that produces that distinctive spicy flavor is Zingiber officinale. Some Asian cuisines may expand that but other species will not produce a similar taste.

And there are at least 7 other genera that are commonly called "ginger" with only one, Curcuma longa, producing an edible root (tumeric). Ornamental or non-edible gingers are far more prolific than edible forms! So if one just says they are planting ginger, it is a good idea to know exactly what sort of ginger is being planted :-)

"Ornamental or non-edible gingers are far more prolific than edible
forms! So if one just says they are planting ginger, it is a good idea
to know exactly what sort of ginger is being planted :-)"

And don't go eating something just because it's called ginger, until you are certain it's edible!

I love it candied and use Alton Browns's recipe. I eat it as a small snack.

The people I got it from eat it all the time. I checked. Nancy

Add me to the list of people who love candied ginger. I chew it for motion sickness and add it to gingersnaps and Grandma's Molasses Cookies. I like the pickled ginger I get at the sushi places and grated ginger in sauces and marinades.

Ginger tea will settle an upset stomach and the girls both like golden milk made with ginger and tumeric, cinnamon and black pepper. I make it with almond milk or cashew milk for my lactose intolerant daughter. We all hate soy milk, so that's out.

Annie

I use fresh grated ginger for cooking and baking. I prefer it to dried/powdered in gingerbread and pumpkin pie. I have a bunch growing in my yard - both culinary & non-culinary. Fragrant flowering gingers are my faves. I also have some turmeric.

Fresh grated ginger makes a wonderful hot tea w/ honey, when you're under the weather. I was drinking some every day when I had the flu.

Gorgeous flowers!

I use ginger almost every day in dressings, Pho, bone broth, roasted on the gas stovetop flame, in dumplings, Miso soup, sesame/ginger dipping sauce for spring rolls, lemon/ginger/cucumber in seltzer and iced tea, and add to kombucha second fermentation with golden beet and turmeric root. Second fermentation gives the fizz/soda bubbles. Tastes like ginger ale.

Soon, about this time of year, the big fat super fresh ginger shows up in my market. I make pickled ginger, the sushi style. It is less fibrous when very fresh.

Well, they said they ate it all the time, but it certainly didn't taste like typical ginger! It wouldn't grate and was really woody. Maybe I'll replant them in the yard where I can enjoy the flower fragrance!

Now I'm obsessed! Can I grow some from supermarket ginger? I thought I saw some sprouts starting on some.

"Lars

I have flowering ginger in my yard also, but I have not yet gotten any turmeric to grow. Perhaps I planted it at the wrong time of year, or maybe it was too old. ---"

I bought a container of turmeric. Couldn't finish it. So I planted the rest in the garden. I was disappointed that nothing was coming up.

Then fall came and I started to clear the garden. I realized that the weeds that i was pulling out all season were turmeric started to sprout. What an idiot I was. :-)

dcarch

Hmmmmmm, planting your own turmeric? I'm intrigued! Do you dry it to use it? You know you have to incorperate pepper for it to be beneficial.

I've just started seeing fresh turmeric root in local groceries. I bought some a while ago but didn't manage to use it all before it got soft. Now I'm thinking maybe I could grow that....

Annie

I love ginger in ANYTHING! I love ginger beer, candied ginger, stem ginger, ginger root - you name it. If a recipe has ginger in it (not ground ginger, but the root), I know it's a recipe I'll love.

Tomorrow or Tues, I'm going to make a recipe I found online that swears it is the same as the Ben's Cookies recipe for dark chocolate chunks and stem ginger cookies. I have bought them in London when there, for years - heaven! A store has just opened in NYC - wish I could get my son to buy some and mail them to me. They are simply THE BEST!

There are more gingers used in cooking that some of y'all's replies indicate, folks. (For what it's worth, I am Asian and cook Asian most of the time)

Zingiber officinale - our common grocery store ginger

Zingiber mioga - Myoga ginger, the flower buds are used pickled or sliced into soups and salads

Zingiber zerumbet - Shampoo ginger, used in shampoos, yes, but also used to flavor fish and soupy dishes

Galanga - there are *four* plants associated with this name, from Alpinia, Kaempferia, Boesenbergia. I use them regularly except Boesenbergia.

Cardamon - this is also a ginger! Or rather, like galanga, several different gingers are referred to as cardamon.

Curcuma - the genus that contains our grocery store turmeric, but other members of the genus are important spices as well.

New ingredients can sometimes be like learning a new word in a new language. Once you've learned it you see it crop up everywhere. Above mentioned gingers are regularly found in farmers' markets and the dry spice aisles in mainstream US supermarkets. Fresh versions are frequently offered in Asian grocery stores. If you've eaten at Asian restaurants, especially Thai and Indian, you've probably had most of the ones in the list!

Assuming @nancyjane_gardener is growing Zingiber officinale...in my cooking if a dish contains meat then there's probably ginger in it, even if you can't taste it. In stir-fries it is an aromatic ingredient used to flavor the cooking oil, before meats and vegetables are added. In soups, ginger is used to make flavors pop. Ginger milk pudding and double-skin milk are pretty great, too. They resemble panna cotta, but have a slight spicy kick.