Chives – A Fresh, Mild Onion-Like Herb
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Chives is a herb from the perennial plant Allium schoenoprasum, a member of the lily family, Liliaceae. Native to Europe, Asia and North America, chives are used to season many foods with a mild onion flavor.
Related to the onion chives have a similar growth habit. A small, white bulbous root underlies the tubular leaves that are used in cooking. The bulbs and leaves grow in clumps. Propagation of the chives plant is most successful by splitting established clumps into smaller pieces. The small white bulbous roots can be planted out individually.
Flowers rise up on separate flower stalks and bloom in pretty pink, purple or blue umbels. The flower heads have a distinctly round appearance, a trait shared by related Allium species that are grown in flower gardens for their unique spherical flower heads that may reach four to five inches in diameter. In the biggest varieties the flower stems reach three feet tall with the striking compact flower head at the top. Culinary chives flowers are about a foot tall. The flowers rarely set seed, so propagation is appropriately via root division.
Chives are used to season many foods with a mild onion flavor. Chives go well with eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, dips and spreads, soups, salads, vegetable dishes and fish. The leaves are used fresh or added at the last moment to hot dishes to preserve the onion-like flavor. For example, instead of adding chives to a hot pasta sauce, toss minced chives with pasta at the time the sauce is added to the noodles and serve immediately.
Chives are best eaten raw and they’re available at grocers the year round. Frozen cut chives or freeze-dried chives may also be available at market. They don’t need to be thawed or reconstituted before using. Just sprinkle some on the dish to be served. Chives is one of the ingredients in the herb mixture called fines herbes used in French cooking.
Herb gardens and kitchen herb pots do well with chives. When kept in a sunny window a continuous supply of leaves is ready to season many foods. Snip off the long, thin, green hollow leaves at the base and cut with scissors over the food to be seasoned.
Fresh chives are high in vitamin C and iron. The powerful and crisp taste of chives may excite the palate enough that salt isn’t added to the dish. That makes it an excellent substitute for salt. If used regularly as a salt substitute, chives could help salt-sensitive people to lower their sodium intake in efforts to reduce their blood pressure.
Like other members of the Allium genus, chives contains allicin, a naturally occurring chemical that may confer health benefits to its fans. This may be of interest to anyone with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or predisposition to heart disease. Allicin has been shown to lower cholesterol and reduce high blood pressure. Evidence suggests it may even prevent some types of cancer.
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Source by Naomi Gallagher