How to Dice Ginger Roots

Dice ginger root to add an exotic flair to your cuisine.

Ginger root, a staple of ethnic cuisine, can be tricky to dice. Ginger must be cut into smaller pieces before it's diced, due to the tuberous shape of the root. Diced ginger adds a sweet spiciness when combined with other spices like cumin, turmeric, garlic and mustard seed. Dice the ginger -- making small, even cuts -- to allow the root to cook evenly and spread the flavor throughout the dish. Does this Spark an idea?

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Vegetable peeler or paring knife
Sharp knife
Cutting board

Instructions

- 1
  
  Remove the peels of the ginger root completely, using the vegetable peeler or paring knife. Ginger root is a tuberous bulb and has many bumps and off-shoots, so you may need to cut it into smaller pieces before you peel it, to reach all the nooks and crannies.
- 2
  
  Lay the peeled root on the cutting board, and cut it in half lengthwise. Repeat this for all the pieces. This gives you a flat surface on the root to make easy dice cuts.
- 3
  
  Put the point of the knife on the cutting board, as a pivot point, for raising the knife up and down while cutting. Lay one half of the ginger root, flat side down, on the cutting board.
- 4
  
  Cut vertical slices -- going from one end to the other -- on the entire half. Make them thin, because a dice cut usually is small.
- 5
  
  Hold all the pieces together with one hand and turn them, keeping them together, so you can make horizontal cuts.
- 6
  
  Cut horizontal slices across the vertical slices to make small, even diced pieces. Repeat this process with all the halves of ginger root, until they all are diced.