Chive Blossom Butter Recipe

Onion Chive Blossoms, Glamorosi Cooks Garden - Photo Copyright Reese Amorosi, GlamorosiCooks.com

As an avid cook and organic gardener, I love that each season brings an amazing array of culinary delights. Every year I look forward to onion chives; the leaves and blossoms are among the first edible perennials to emerge in our kitchen garden each Spring. This Chive Blossom Butter recipe uses the edible flowers to make an outstanding compound butter that adds onion flavor to eggs, vegetables, pasta, potatoes, bread and more.

While chive leaves are a popular ingredient, many people don’t know the blossoms are edible, too. In our zone 7b garden, chives flower for about 8 weeks beginning in late April or early May. The pale purple, pom-pom blooms taste stronger than the leaves, and they are gorgeous in a wide variety of dishes.

Chive Blossom Butter Radish Toast - This photo shows two portions of the Chive Blossom Butter Radish Toast recipe by Reese Amorosi for GlamorosiCooks.com. The dish consists of baguette with chive blossom butter topped with thinly sliced radishes, chive blossom pieces, chopped chive leaves and course salt. The food is on a pale green Jadeite plate. Once our blooms start opening, we wait to harvest them until there are enough to leave some behind for the bees. Then, the feast begins. We usually start by making Chive Blossom Pasta, then move onto making Chive Blossom Vinegar and this Chive Blossom Butter recipe. You can use this compound butter in any savory dish that would benefit from the onion flavor. Try it with eggs, vegetables, potatoes, etc. It is absolutely exceptional when used to make Radish Toast with Chive Blossom Butter.

In our garden the chive blossoms are generally around the size of a golf ball, but occasionally we get a few smaller. The Chive Blossom Butter in my photos was made with 6 average size blooms and two tablespoons of chopped leaves. After I spread the butter mix into the white dish, I used a pastry brush to make a swirly design on the top.

Only use organic chives and blossoms so that you don’t ingest pesticides or other harmful chemicals. Before you use them in any recipe, wash and dry them in a salad spinner. If you don’t have a spinner you can use a drying screen or the cooling racks you use for baking.

When making this recipe, be sure to use good butter. I put a pinch of Kosher salt in the mix when I initially blend the Chive Blossom Butter. Then, when I serve it, I finish it with an additional sprinkle of salt. Depending on my mood, I use more Kosher salt, fleur de sel or Maldon. Or, I use something new in my salt collection (I am obsessed with salt). Of course, you also have the option to make this compound butter salt-free. There are no wrong choices, do what YOU like.

Onion Chives vs Garlic Chives

Garlic Chive Flowers by Reese Amorosi for GlamorosiCooks.com. The small white flowers look like stars.Onion Chives bloom in the spring, but they have an equally delicious counterpart that blooms in the fall: Garlic Chives. In our region (zone 7b) Garlic Chives bloom from late-August through the end of September, sometimes a little longer. Garlic chive flowers look like a ball of tiny white stars.

There is a difference in taste – onion vs garlic – but garlic chive flowers can be used in any of my onion chive flower recipes.

For growing information, read the Glamorosi Cooks post titled How to Grow, Harvest and Divide Chives.

Yield

I set this Chive Blossom Butter recipe at 32 servings, 1 tablespoon each. But, as I wrote in my Chocolate Hummus recipe post, my husband and I eat like giant monsters. So, we get about half that. Please adjust the portions according to your diet and health needs.

If you enjoyed this recipe, stop by the Glamorosi Cooks home page to see all of our recipes in one place.

Print Recipe
Chive Blossom Butter Recipe
This Chive Blossom Butter recipe makes an outstanding compound butter that adds onion flavor to vegetables, eggs, pasta, potatoes, bread and more.
Recipe by~ Reese Amorosi
Chive Blossom Butter Recipe
Votes: 19
Rating: 4.37
You:
Rate this recipe!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
Ingredients
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Passive Time 3 hours
Servings
Ingredients
Chive Blossom Butter Recipe
Votes: 19
Rating: 4.37
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Place butter in bowl, stir in chive blossoms, chopped chives and salt.
    This photo shows Chive Blossom Butter Ingredients - from left to right: chive flowers separated, unsalted butter, chopped chive leaves. The ingredients are in jadeite bowls, large in the middle, smaller on either side. There is a whole chive flower and two chive leaves in front of the bowls. All of it is on a grey marble tray hat fills the frame. Recipe and Photo Copyright Reese Amorosi, GlamorosiCooks.com
  2. Spread butter mix into small serving dish or molds, or roll into log in parchment paper. If you use a crock or bowl that is a little deeper, you can use a melon baller to make individual portions, or a deep spoon to make lovely butter rochers.
  3. Seal finished butter in plastic wrap to keep it fresh, chill for several hours or more until set.
  4. Optional: just before serving, sprinkle a pinch of finishing salt over the butter. If you have additional chive blossoms or leaves, you can use them to garnish the butter.
Recipe Notes

Store in refrigerator, use in 7 days. Can be frozen.

To make this dairy-free, use a vegan spread. You can also substitute avocado for the butter: use 2 avocados and 3-4 chive blossoms. It is different, of course, but equally delicious.

Published by Glamorosi Cooks

'Glamorosi Cooks' is a website featuring garden-to-table recipes and food and gardening articles by Reese Amorosi. If you like what you see, we'd be honored if you'd share our recipes and articles using the social media buttons shown on each post. Thank you!

4 comments on “Chive Blossom Butter Recipe

  1. When you say dry blossom and leaves do you mean like dried for a week or just dried after washing??

  2. Hello Johanne, thank you for visiting Glamorosi Cooks.

    Just dried after washing so you aren’t adding water to the mix.

    Enjoy your chive butter!

    ~Reese Amorosi

  3. Gerry Colson

    2021-08-25 at 8:48 AM

    Hi, Reese, Gerry here. My chives must be a different variety because the flower heads are white clusters. They taste delicious and I don’t want to mess that up by using the wrong recipe. Is there anything different I should do w/this type chive?

  4. Hi Gerry, nice to meet you!

    Onion chives have the fluffy purple flowers and generally bloom in the Spring. Garlic chives have the white flower clusters and generally bloom in the late Summer into early Fall. I grow both; my garlic chives started putting up flower heads about two weeks ago that are just starting to open now at the end of August.

    Both varieties are delicious and can be used in similar ways: to infuse vinegar, in compound butters, to add flavor to an omelette or stir fry, in pasta dishes, salads, tuna or egg salad sandwiches, etc. When I use either variety in hot dishes I add them at the end (like a garnish or topping), because in my opinion, cooking them diminishes the flavor.

    For either variety, be sure to use them before they start to go to seed. I always leave some flowers behind for the pollinators.

    I have been meaning to add this info to the Glamorosi Cooks website, thank you for bringing it up.

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