I’m a Professional Gear Tester and a Bit of a Minimalist — But I Use This $11 Gadget Every Day

When it comes to kitchen equipment, I’m a bit of a minimalist. I depend heavily on very basic tools — like a chef’s knife, a cast iron skillet, and a Dutch oven. My preferred coffee-making method is even pretty basic — just a simple pour-over setup. Rarely do I pull out specialty items like a garlic press, a shrimp deveiner, or an avocado slicer. But there is one very low-tech gadget that I depend on for everyday cooking. And that’s the inexpensive OXO Ginger & Garlic Grater.  

Garlic or ginger (or both!) is bound to be in just about everything I cook — whether it’s the simplest green salad or Asian-style noodles or a complex braised beef. Since the beginning of the pandemic, poke bowls with lots of ginger have been in regular rotation at Chez Franke. I’ve found that there’s no better way to grate fibrous ginger root or faster way to mash garlic than with the OXO. Literally, it takes seconds to make “mincemeat” out of a finger of ginger or a few cloves of garlic. When you’re making a dressing or a sauce, the resulting purée blends in easily and thoroughly. 

It’s got sharp, etched teeth and a very comfortable handle. The best part? It also comes with a snap-on lid that doubles as a scraper. See, it fits into the back of the grater and easily scrapes off every last bit of grated ginger or garlic goodness. Both pieces can go in the top rack of your dishwasher and the whole gadget is small enough to easily stash in a drawer.  

In case I haven’t yet convinced you that this little tool is more than worth 10 bucks, I’ll add one more point: It also comes in handy when you need to zest a lemon or a lime or grate a nutmeg or cinnamon stick.  

Buy: Etched Ginger & Garlic Grater, $10.99 at OXO