Dry ginger powder

Dry ginger powder is produced by peeling, sun-drying, and pulverizing the mature underground rhizomes of Zingiber officinale. It’s a pantry spice with concentrated heat that disperses quickly in food and drinks.

In Hindi it’s called saunth or sonth. You’ll also hear Tamil sukku, Malayalam chukku, Telugu sonti, Marathi sunth, and Kannada ona shunti. It’s sold as a fine powder, and also as hard, dehydrated whole rhizomes you can pound or grate.

Dry ginger delivers an intense, lingering warmth with pronounced pungency. Compared to fresh ginger, it has a deeper, woodier aroma and a concentrated peppery bite without the fresh citrus top notes. It cuts cleanly through rich gravies and sweet confections.

For Kashmiri cooking, saunth with fennel powder is essential for that rounded heat in Dum Aloo and Rogan Josh. Add it during cooking with your other powdered spices so the pungency softens as the curry or dal simmers.

Brew it into decoctions, spiced teas, and herbal tonics with jaggery and crushed peppercorns. It also mixes well into festive sweets and postpartum tonics such as gond ke laddu and panjiri.

Dry ginger powder comes from ginger rhizomes grown across India. Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, and Odisha produce substantial ginger, with Odisha also harvesting for traditional sun-drying. Karbi Anglong Ginger from Assam holds a GI tag for high oleoresin and aroma. Arunachal Pradesh Adi Kekir is an indigenous GI-tagged ginger from Himalayan terrain.

Ground ginger provides dietary fiber and trace minerals including iron, magnesium, potassium, and manganese.