Galangal looks like ginger’s paler cousin: a firm, ringed root with smooth skin and pink tips. Cut into it and the difference is clear. Where ginger is warm and sweet, galangal is sharp, peppery and citrusy, with a clean, almost pine-like scent.
In Thai cooking it is one of the three aromatics, together with lemongrass and lime leaves, that build the base of a dish. It is the signature flavour of Tom Kha Gai (the name literally means “galangal chicken soup”), it gives Tom Yum its sharp perfume, and it is pounded into red, green and massaman curry pastes.
In your kitchenWhere ginger is warm and sweet, galangal is bright and resinous.
How to use it
Slice it for soups
Cut thin coins and simmer them in the broth. They flavour the soup but are not eaten.
Pound it for pastes
Chop finely and grind with chili, lemongrass and garlic.
Keep it in the freezer
Fresh galangal keeps for months frozen. Slice it straight from the freezer.