Explore all the different ways you can cook with chives. From egg dishes to meat, potatoes, and the best garlic bread, we share our favorite ways to add chives to your next recipe.
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Chives are these amazing delicate onions that resemble grass. Quite often in the more moderate climates, you will often mistake chives for grass. It will be happily growing along with your lawn. Can it get any easier?
This little runt of the onion family is one of the most versatile herbs you can use.
The beauty of this delicate little bundle of essence is that it is as good raw as cooked.
I mostly prefer to use chives in fresh dishes but cooking with chives is equally delicious. Chives have been around for a millennium so there is an abundance of different ways for us to incorporate them into our dishes. I will touch on a few of my favorite ways to elevate a dish by using fresh or cooking with chives. Time for a little “chive talking”.
Preparing Your Fresh Chives
Not much work is involved here. If using fresh chives from your garden or the grocery store, just give them a rinse.
Once you have rinsed the chives off you can chop them with a sharp knife or use what I prefer and that is a sharp pair of scissors. I find using scissors is not only easier, but you can cut the delicate blades finer.
Cooking With Chives
Chives are a great addition to any savory dish. The beautiful thing is they have this delicate flavor so you can really never add too much.
The key when cooking with chives is to add them in later rather than sooner. As they are a delicate herb they will burn quickly if added to your dish too soon.
Meat
You can add chives to any meat dish, they will add this light onion flavor which elevates the flavor of the protein without distracting from it. If you are a true lover of the flavor of the meat, then cooking it with chives instead of onions is the way to go.
Try frying a nice cut of meat whether it’s pork, beef, lamb chicken, or fish in a pan with butter, salt, pepper, and chives. You are in for a real treat. Just make sure to constantly baste the meat while cooking.
When cooking your preferred meat in a stew or casserole then add chives liberally near the end of the cook to get the most flavor.
Eggs and Other Proteins
Your protein doesn’t have to be meat to get the most from your chives. Add chives to your eggs no matter what style you prefer, scrambled, sunny-side up, poached, or with a hollandaise sauce. Chives with eggs make a wonderful combination, they virtually take the same time to cook.
If beans are your source of preferred protein then once again cooking with chives is as natural as rain.
Try soaking your beans overnight in saltwater with chives then boiling them in the same water. You will want to add more and more chives when cooking your beans but the flavor of the chives will really please your taste buds.
Pasta
Cooking with chives is obligatory when preparing pasta. Whether your pasta sauce contains a meat protein or it’s just a veggie marinara chives will take it to a new level.
When cooking a pasta sauce with meat, add chives at the same time you add your tomatoes, then again when your sauce is almost done.
I love to sprinkle fresh chives on top of my plated pasta dishes before serving, it’s delicious and looks great. This delicate little friend even makes me look like a chef.
I love a simple quick pasta.
Just boil up your favorite variety of noodles, strain them, add olive oil, a hand full of fresh or dried(if that’s what you have) chives, salt, pepper then top it off with a strong dry cheese like parmesan, pecorino, or Grana Padano, give it a good toss or stir. You have a very simple delicious meal. Without the chives, it would not be the same.
A cheeky glass of a nice dry red wine is a lovely romantic addition to this simple dish.
Garlic Bread
What would pasta be without garlic bread? An unfinished dish. Garlic bread and pasta are ancient lovers.
Grab a fresh baguette or some thickly sliced bread of your choice. Cut the bread into 2-inch slices, if not already sliced.
Take an entire bulb of garlic sprinkle it with olive oil, put it on a piece of aluminum foil, fire it in the oven and bake it until it’s soft.
Once soft take out the garlic and let it cool but not get cold. You just want it at a temperature where you can handle it with your fingers so as to not get burnt.
While your baked garlic is cooling down a bit, get a small bowl, add a healthy stick of butter, or two or three. Melt the butter on the stove, while melting it add your fresh chives and a bit of salt, stir them around.
Add the garlic paste to your butter and chives that are simmering away in the pot, stir this mixture until it becomes a nice thick sauce.
Now here is the decadent part if you are as a fanatical lover of garlic bread like I am.
- I take the entire slice of bread, submerge it in the garlic sauce then put it on a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle with a light dusting of pecorino cheese.
- Pop your garlic bread into the oven until the cheese has melted and the bread is brown around the edges.
- Take out your golden brown slices of heaven, sprinkle with some more fresh chives and dig in. Absolute heaven, like fairy blessing your tonsils.
Just the smell of your kitchen will drive people a mouthwatering crazy, for miles around.
That was a pretty decadent way to eat garlic bread but well worth the effort.
The practical, most common way is to just paint your bread with the garlic sauce, add your favorite hard cheese if you so desire, pop it in the oven until the bread is golden, again sprinkle some fresh chives over the top. That’s it, a delicious addition to your pasta dish.
If you are health conscious about using butter, you can easily substitute the butter with olive oil, your bread will still be absolutely delicious.
Cooking With Chives And The Baked Potato
Nothing I love more than a baked potato with butter and sour cream, except for a baked potato with sour cream butter and chives.
Chives bring this simple delight to just a higher level. Here is my favorite way to enjoy this.
First, we have to bake our potatoes. Try this and you will love it.
- Wash your potato well so you don’t have any little gritty parts when eating it, you will want to eat the skin with this recipe for sure.
- Cut an inch wedge out of the side of your potato and stick in a peeled clove of garlic.
- Stick the wedge back on top the garlic clove and wrap the potato in aluminum foil.
- Stick your potatoes(s) n the oven or on the BBQ, cook until soft.
- Once cooked, when you slice open the potato you will see the garlic clove has completely melted away into the potato. Great flavor while keep it moist.
- Prepare your sour cream and butter. Now you can either add the sour cream, butter and chives all separately or mix them all together first, I prefer this method as it combines the flavors into a perfect balance.
- Let the butter get soft but not by heating it. Mix your sour cream, butter, salt, pepper and chives together in a small bowl.
- Take you baked potato out of the oven or Bbq.
- Here is a great trick on presentation I learned working in a steak house.
- Keeping the potato in the foil make a slice down the side of the potato.
- Now with your thumb and forefinger from each hand garb the ends of the potato and push then together.
- This will open the potato up while keeping it warm in the foil, it looks great too.
Now add your sour cream, butter, and chive sauce and you are ready to feast.
Salads
I don’t have to say much about this as it’s just common sense to sprinkle fresh chives over any salad once you have finished preparing it, a leafy salad, potato or bean, fresh chives make a beautiful garnish while enhancing the flavor.
You can add chives to that homemade vinaigrette for a delightful addition of flavor.
How Will You Add Chives To Your Next Meal?
Considering the versatility, delicious flavor, and how easy chives are to grow, you should never be without them. All you need is a bit of soil, a small plant pot, and a sunny spot on your window sill. You can begin to enjoy cooking with your own chives daily.