Galangal vs. Ginger: How Do They Compare?

Galangal and ginger are cousins, not twins. In a savory dish where galangal is one aromatic among many, ginger can stand in. Where galangal is the point of the dish, as in tom yum, it can’t. Galangal is hard and fibrous, and America’s Test Kitchen calls its flavor “sharp, astringent, and almost piney”; ginger is softer and, by ATK’s account, “lightly sweet and spicy.”¹ The swap doesn’t run both ways, either: ATK found galangal too strong to stand in for ginger in frozen yogurt.

Both are rhizomes from the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, but from different genera: galangal is Alpinia galanga, ginger is Zingiber officinale. Galangal also goes by Siamese ginger and Thai ginger, which doesn’t help. It tastes sharp and resinous.

Side by side

	Galangal	Ginger
Species	Alpinia galanga (greater galangal)	Zingiber officinale
Family	Zingiberaceae	Zingiberaceae
Native range (Kew)	Southern China to western and central Malesia	Eastern Himalaya to south-central China
Part used	Rhizome; flowers and young shoots also eaten	Rhizome
The rhizome	Hard, fibrous and shiny, light red or pale yellow (PROSEA); Katzer describes a pale reddish surface ringed with reddish-brown bands and a hard, woody interior	Softer; young ginger is milder, mature ginger hotter²
Key compounds	Essential oil 0.2 to 1.5% of dry weight; 1,8-cineole confirmed as the main component in 1980s studies³	Heat from gingerols and shogaols; aroma oil usually 1 to 3% of commercial dried ginger, with zingiberene, ar-curcumene and β-sesquiphellandrene⁴
Flavor	Strong and pungent, like a mix of pepper and ginger (PROSEA); sharp, astringent, almost piney (ATK)³¹	Lightly sweet and spicy (ATK)¹
Forms	Fresh or dried	Fresh, or dried and powdered; also preserved in syrup
Typical uses	Thai soups and curry pastes; Indonesian cooking	Fresh in Asian cooking; dried and ground in European cooking
Price	No dated, sourced retail comparison found	No dated, sourced retail comparison found

The compound rows compare different things. For galangal the sources describe the aroma oil; for ginger they separate the non-volatile heat compounds from the aroma oil. None of the sources we opened names galangal’s pungent compounds or measures the two rhizomes’ heat side by side.

For each spice on its own, see galangal and ginger.

The differences that change a dish

Flavor

The sources agree that galangal tastes different from ginger, but they describe its strength differently:

Source	What it says about galangal
PROSEA	A strong pungent taste, like a mixture of pepper and ginger³
America’s Test Kitchen	Sharp, astringent and almost piney; too strong in place of ginger in frozen yogurt and a soy dipping sauce¹
Chowhound (Shriya Swaminathan)	Much sharper and more citrusy than ginger, with deep, earthy undertones⁵
Gernot Katzer	Fresh: a pure, refreshing odor and a mildly spicy flavor. Dried and powdered: less fresh but more spicy, between ginger and cinnamon⁶

These are descriptions, not measurements, so we don’t average them. Katzer’s split between fresh and dried is the useful part for a cook: dried galangal is a different ingredient from fresh. See dried vs. fresh galangal.

Ginger varies too. Tasting Table describes young ginger, harvested about eight months after planting, as “mild and delicate with an almost floral sweetness,” and mature ginger as having “a potent yet pleasant heat.”² PROSEA singles out Jamaican ginger for its delicate aroma and flavor.⁴ So “ginger” in a recipe isn’t one fixed strength either.

Texture and prep

Galangal’s rhizome is hard and fibrous, with a hard, woody interior. That’s why recipes slice it into coins instead of grating it: the Northern Illinois University tom kha kai calls for six thin slices of young galangal,⁷ and Hot Thai Kitchen’s tom yum for eight slices. Hot Thai Kitchen also notes that galangal, lemongrass and makrut lime leaves are traditionally left in the soup as garnish.⁸ Fresh ginger grates easily, and you can peel it with the edge of a spoon.

Where each belongs

Fresh ginger is essential to many dishes in Asia, while the dried, powdered spice is more popular in European cooking. Galangal’s home is Southeast Asia: ground fresh galangal is an essential ingredient in most Thai curry pastes, and Indonesians often use it fresh or dried, sliced or powdered. Katzer notes it isn’t well known in Western countries today.⁶ That wasn’t always so: Chaucer’s Cook in the Canterbury Tales seasons with “galyngale.”⁹

Can one stand in for the other?

ATK’s verdict is right in the title of its piece: substitute ginger for galangal, but not the other way round.¹

Swap	Starting amount	Treatment
Fresh ginger for fresh galangal, where galangal is one of several aromatics	3 to 4 times the galangal amount, plus a little lemon juice	Attributed
Fresh ginger for galangal in tom yum or tom kha	Not recommended; use frozen or dried galangal, or leave it out	Method
Ground ginger for ground galangal	Same amount, plus a pinch of cinnamon or black pepper	Method
Galangal for ginger in Thai or Southeast Asian soups and pastes	Same amount sliced; about half as much grated	Method
Galangal for ginger in sweets and baking	Not recommended

Ginger for galangal in curry pastes, stir-fries and stews. ATK doesn’t mind swapping in ginger in savory dishes where galangal is one of several aromatics.¹ Chowhound says to use three to four times more ginger than the galangal called for, with lemon juice to echo the citrus notes.⁵ That’s a food writer’s rule of thumb, so add the ginger in stages. See galangal substitutes.
Not in tom yum. Pailin Chongchitnant’s tom yum recipe says not to substitute ginger, which tastes very different, and to use frozen or dried galangal instead, or leave it out. She calls lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime leaves the soup’s three iconic herbs.⁸
Ground ginger for ground galangal. Katzer places dried galangal between ginger and cinnamon,⁶ which points to ground ginger with a pinch of cinnamon. Start with an equal amount of ground ginger and a small pinch of cinnamon or black pepper.
Galangal for ginger. Our ginger substitutes page gives galangal as a starting-point swap in Thai and Southeast Asian soups and pastes: about the same amount sliced, or half as much grated, since it tastes sharper. In sweets, ATK found galangal too strong in frozen yogurt.¹ Gingerbread made with galangal would be a different cake.

What isn’t known

No study measures the pungency of galangal against ginger, and the sources describe galangal’s strength differently (see the table above).
None of the sources we opened names the compounds behind galangal’s bite, the way gingerols are named for ginger.
We found no dated price comparison. Galangal is often said to be pricier and harder to find in Western shops; Katzer says only that it isn’t well known there.
Soto ayam often shows up on lists of galangal dishes; we didn’t find a source we could check for it.

“Substitute Ginger for Galangal, but Not Vice Versa”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
September Grace Mahino, “Young Ginger Vs Mature: What’s The Difference?”, Tasting Table, 2023. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
J.J.C. Scheffer and P.C.M. Jansen, Alpinia galanga, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³
H. Sutarno, E.A. Hadad and M. Brink, Zingiber officinale, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Shriya Swaminathan, “Galangal Vs Ginger: Can You Substitute One For The Other?”, Chowhound, 2025. chowhound.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Gernot Katzer, “Greater Galangale”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³
“Tomkha Kai”, SEAsite, Northern Illinois University. seasite.niu.edu · Reference work ↩
Pailin Chongchitnant, “Tom Yum Soup (Tom Yum Goong)”, Hot Thai Kitchen. hot-thai-kitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Geoffrey Chaucer, General Prologue, Canterbury Tales, Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website. chaucer.fas.harvard.edu · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

Alpinia galanga (L.) Willd., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
Galangal, by Jennifer Murtoff, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com

Galangal vs. Ginger: Flavor, Texture and When to Swap