Chive Blossom Vinegar

Chives are the easiest home garden herb to grow and they come back every year without fail. They taste great and also bloom into lovely little purple blossoms. It is these lovely little Lorax style blossoms that we use to make this garlicky flavoured vinegar.


Snip just the blooms from the chives wash and thoroughly dry. I washed and then patted dry with a paper towel, then lay out on a dry paper towel for a few hours until totally dry.  Put cleaned blossoms in a clean dry mason jar.



Cover with vinegar of your choice. I used apple cider vinegar, that was all I had at the time, but I think white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar would be really nice too.

Press blossoms down with a spoon to submerge and make sure they get covered in vinegar.
Place the lid on the jar and store in a dark cupboard for about two weeks.


After two weeks you have this pinkish purple liquid, when you take the lid off it will smell like garlic chives. It does smell really good! Strain vinegar through a cheese cloth into a clean dry bottle or jar.

Use in favourite salad dressings, vinaigrette or any recipe where you would use vinegar.

Now go grow some chives!

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Bistro Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is great served warm but is equally good served cold.  It is a really nice summer pasta salad and is perfect for a picnic lunch or summer potluck and it makes a lot to feed a crowd.

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450g box bowtie pasta

Olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

14oz jar marinated artichoke

14oz jar roasted red peppers

14oz can crushed tomatoes

2 cups baby spinach (you can use regular spinach, just chop it)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

sal and pepper to taste

a good sprinkling of grated parmesan (probably about 1/4 cup)

Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente.

mince garlic and toss with a little olive oil

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put strain pasta in bowl with the garlic and toss generously with more olive oil

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Chop the roasted peppers and artichokes, into bite size-ish pieces

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Toss that in on the pasta

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Add the tomatoes, at this stage I season with a little salt and pepper and taste to make sure it is how I want it

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Toss in the spinach and some parmesan

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Mix it all together

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Serve topped with a little sprinkle of parmesan and some baguette…and a nice glass of wine.

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