Making spice pastes with a food processor
It sounds like you are doing it wrong! :) Grind spices in a spice grinder first (a rotary coffee grinder works fine for that). See How do you finely grind coriander seeds? 

Garlic, ginger, fresh herbs and coconut are fine in a small bowl of a food processor, but they need some time and a few restarts after cleaning the sides of the bowl with a spatula. After processing the spices and other dry things in the rotary grinder, you can add the spices to the moist things after they have been processed. The food processor will be fine to mix the dry and moist parts, after they have been ground/processed separately.