Pantry · Herbs
Chives
A green onion you do not cook hard: the last snip on eggs, a soup, and a Thai or German plate that wants freshness.
The journey
Chives are the onion of people who already cooked the onion. French omelets, German potatoes, Italian ricotta, and a Thai garnish all use the hollow grass for a clean allium note that does not linger like a raw shallot.
Fourteen recipes in the series name them. Chinese and Korean kitchens more often reach for garlic chives — flatter, louder. This page is the round European snip unless a recipe says otherwise.
In the kitchen
Add at the end. Heat turns them into string. Snip with scissors over eggs, sour cream, or a soup. Wash and dry; they hold grit.
If you only have the green tops of scallions, you are close. You are not quite there.
Healers and the table
European kitchen gardens treated chives as a mild spring tonic — a green you eat, not a tincture.
Chives on eggs are breakfast. They are not medical advice.
Traditional uses are part of the story of this spice. They are not medical advice.