- the essentials in brief
- Can you eat chive flowers?
- Where chives grow
- Using Chive Flowers: Recipes
- How to collect chive flowers
- frequently asked Questions
They not only provide a taste enrichment but also pamper the eye: chive blossoms decorate a wide variety of dishes and refine the dishes with a mildly spicy note. If you missed the chive harvest, let the flowers melt in your mouth instead.
Not only bees taste chive blossoms
Table of Contents
Show all- the essentials in brief
- Are chive flowers edible?
- Chive flowers - recipes
- Collect chive flowers
- frequently asked Questions
- Chive flowers are not poisonous. They taste less intense than the leaves and have a slightly sweet note.
- The inflorescences can be used in many ways. They can be pickled in vinegar or salt, or made into herb butter and oil.
- Fresh chive blossoms are collected in the morning, when the aromatic content is at its highest.
- Flower stems firm and woody with a bitter taste
- Chive blossoms are slightly spicy with a subtle sweetness
- Leaves become increasingly bitter with age
- Forestate: intense bright pink
- profusion: sterile and purple-pink flowers keep their delicate taste for a particularly long time
- Elbe: white flowering variety
the essentials in brief
Can you eat chive flowers?
Chive flowers not only look pretty, they are also edible
Chives grow as a herbaceous plant from whose underground rhizome numerous tubular leaves emerge. These are harvested and used as a kitchen spice. Allium schoenoprasum flowers between May and August. The inflorescences have 30 to 50 individual flowers tightly packed together. The flower stalk is reminiscent of a leaf in shape, but has a firmer consistency and rises significantly above the leaf tuft. Chive flowers are not poisonous but edible. The leaves can also be eaten during flowering.This is what chives taste like when they are in bloom:
digression
Where chives grow
Chives are found in cool climate regions. The main European distribution area extends across Fennoscandia, although the plant also grows wild in the central European mountains. Here, the popular kitchen spice has specialized in wet habitats. The plant shares biotopes with typical wetness indicators such as horsetail or brook avens. On boggy ground, chives tend to become the dominant plant species.Using Chive Flowers: Recipes
Word has gotten around that the pink flowers are edible. Many online retailers offer the option of buying chive flowers that are still closed. This keeps them fresh until delivery. Eating chive flowers is something for gourmets:
| ingredients | recipe | |
|---|---|---|
| Chive Blossom Butter | 250 g butter, 20 chive blossoms, 2 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper | Melt the butter, press the garlic and mix into the butter with the blossoms, season and chill |
| Chive Blossom Oil | 500 ml sunflower oil, 8 chive blossoms, rosemary, parsley, thyme | Pour oil over blossoms and herbs and let stand for three weeks |
| Caramelized chive blossoms | Olive oil, chives of your choice, powdered sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper | Fry the blossoms in olive oil, sprinkle with powdered sugar and deglaze with balsamic vinegar, season |
Salt with chive flowers
Crush any amount of chive flowers with coarse salt, or grind the mixture with an immersion blender and food processor. A mildly aromatic herbal salt with a greenish color results from a quantity of about ten flowers to two tablespoons of salt. The taste and color become more intense with more flower heads. Spread the salt on a baking tray lined with baking paper and let it dry in the oven at the lowest level. To prevent lumps from forming, you should regularly fluff the salt with a fork.
Chive blossoms are versatile and taste mild.
Pickling in vinegar
For the homemade vinegar with a hot note, you need about 20 chive blossoms and 250 milliliters of mild white wine vinegar. Place the flowers in a jar and pour the vinegar over them. The sealed jar is placed in a cool and dark place for a week. Swirl the container daily so all the flowers are covered by the vinegar. After seven days, you can filter the flowers from the purple vinegar and bottle it.
tips
The vinegar tastes quite spicy and can be used as a salad dressing. Onions are then no longer necessary.
How to collect chive flowers
After harvesting, the bouquet should be thoroughly shaken out to leave insects in the garden
When your chives are blooming in the garden, you can cut off the flower stalks at the base. Early in the morning is the ideal time for collecting, because then the flowers are rich in essential oils and nectar. At the same time, you prevent too many flower-visiting insects from getting into the kitchen with the harvest, because these are usually only active when the sun is shining and the temperatures are warm. Shake the harvest vigorously so that hidden insects are released from the flowers.
tips
Washing destroys the delicate petals, allowing the flavors to dissipate more quickly. So only collect flowers that are in good condition and don't need to be washed.
frequently asked Questions
Can you eat chive flower buds?
The flower buds are used as false capers. Pickled in a boiled brew of vinegar and various herbs, the buds take on an intense aroma. They refine hearty dishes and go well with cheese, pasta or salad.
Which chive varieties develop edible flowers?
Chives differ mainly in the thickness of the tubular leaves and their aroma. All varieties of the species Allium schoenoprasum are called chives. While the original species blooms pink, edible cultivated forms develop variable shades:
When can I harvest the leaves and flowers from the chives?
At the beginning of the growing season, chives need nutrients to develop leaves for photosynthesis. During this time, the leaves taste best because they contain many essential oils and vitamins. When the plant flowers, it puts all of its energy into growing the flowers. These should be harvested shortly after they have blossomed, as they too lose their flavor with age. Sterile varieties retain their flowering splendor longer because the energy is not needed for seed formation. Therefore, such chive flowers taste mild throughout the flowering period.
Why should I cut off chive blossoms in good time?
If you break off or cut off flowering shoots in good time, the plant saves energy due to the lack of flower development. As a result, the leaves stay fresh longer and the harvest period is extended. The tubular leaves become progressively woody as the bud develops.
What soil do chives need?
In general, chives prefer a loose and nutrient-rich soil that ensures moist conditions. Allium schoenoprasum is divided into two subspecies that grow in different habitats. While the subspecies 'sibiricum' specializes in moist soils at high altitudes in the Alps, the subspecies 'schoenoprasum' thrives on muddy subsoil with fine soil in the lowlands.