Don’t you just love chives?
I mean, they are probably the prettiest onion there is with their gorgeous purple flower and long graceful green stems. I just love them.
Plus they taste wonderful. They give a mild onion flavor, just a hint to whatever you put them in and it’s just perfect.
Did you know you can use those beautiful blossoms as well? The first time I grew chives, while we were living in Colorado and they had those amazing looking blossoms on them, I thought to myself, “There must be something I can do with those so they don’t go to waste.”
Sure enough there is!
Among other things like putting them on salads or as a garnish or into chèvre you can make a delectable vinegar out of them.
This is one of my favorite things to put on salad, I LOVE an onion flavor on my salad and this vinegar adds just the perfect amount of onion and vinegar pop that a good salad needs. It’s also wonderful, in my opinion, because my husband does NOT like onion on his salad, especially red onion (which is my absolute favorite on a salad) so I can still make one salad and just have a choice of vinegars.
We never use store bought salad dressing around here, salad dressing is super easy and quick to make, but we typically just use a high quality, fresh extra-virgin olive oil and a balsamic vinegar – so good. We got in the habit after spending a couple weeks in Italy a few years ago and have been hooked ever since.
When Jeremiah went back to Italy without me 🙁 for work and was able to spend a month there at a bed and breakfast he got the hook up from the guy who owned the B&B and got the most amazing olive oil in this huge 5L container and we savored that for a long time…but it’s gone now and we are just waiting on pins and needles to get this Ph.D. finished so we can go back.
So if you have chives hanging around and don’t know what to do with them or their blossoms, make this. It’s amazingly quick and easy to throw together but you do need to let it sit for a while to draw out that wonderful chive flavor. Since it just sits there though, it’s pretty easy and why wouldn’t you? If you don’t have any chives growing, go check out your local farmers market, they are in season right now and many farmers sell them with the blossoms still attached. That’s where I actually got my first bunch and then a friend with a garden gave me more – Yippy! Cause I love them and I use them 🙂
- 1½ cups chive blossoms
- 1½ cups champagne or white wine vinegar
- Place the blossoms in a bowl of cool water and push them down into the water to rinse them and get all the bugs off.
- Drain them and place them into a salad spinner if you have one (if not, place on a clean towel and pat them dry as best you can) and spin them to get the excess water off.
- Place the blossoms into a pint size mason jar and then pour the vinegar over them. Place a lid on the jar and store in a dark cool place for a week or two until the flavor is as flavorful as you like.
- Huckleberry Plum Pie - January 1, 2017
- Fresh Mango Sorbet - July 17, 2016
- Steak Caesar Salad - June 8, 2016
