• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Pick a meal
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Pick your protein
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
  • Pick your carb
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Newsletter
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • Newsletter sign-up!
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Refreshing summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Ingredients Kitchen

Difference between garlic scapes and garlic chives

Published: 03.23.2020 » Last updated: 01.27.2023

There are similarities in their appearance but they don’t look exactly the same. Garlic chives and garlic scapes are different vegetables.

Garlic chives and garlic scapes on bamboo chopping board

If you’re confused, you’re not alone. Much of the confusion stems from the many different names by which these vegetables are designated depending on where you are in the world and what marketing techniques vegetable sellers use.

English names of garlic chives include Chinese chives and Chinese leeks

They are not the same as chives which has a flavor more similar to onion. Garlic chives taste more like garlic than onion. The scientific name is Allium tuberosum and there are several varieties. In Western culture, they are mostly grown as ornamental plants. In Asia, garlic chives are grown as food.

Garlic chives

The Chinese have been growing and and cooking with garlic chives thousands of years. There are two main varieties:

  1. The flat-leaf gau choy which looks very similar to the Western chives; and
  2. The flowering gau choy fa which have thin and hollow stalks with buds at the tip.

Between the two, gau choy has a milder flavor.

What is garlic scape?

To understand garlic scapes, we need to start with the two types of garlic: hardneck and softneck. Hardnecks prefer colder climate; softnecks can survive in warmer climates.

Garlic scapes

In physical appearance, the distinction between hardnecks and softnecks lies with the greens that sprout above the soil. With hardneck garlics, a tender stem shoots upward — straight at first then it curls as it grows longer. This is garlic scape.

Unlike the leaves of spring garlic which are real leaves (more on that in the next section), garlic scapes are stalks in the truest sense of the word. In appearance, they look like shorter and smoother yard-long beans. In texture, they are similar to asparagus. When cooked properly, they are lightly crisp and delicately flavored.

Garlic scapes are especially wonderful in stir fries. Instead of having to mince garlic and prepping greens, you just cut the garlic scapes into the desired length and you get the best of both worlds — substantial greens AND a delicate garlicky flavor.

What’s the difference between spring garlic and garlic scape?

Spring garlic is regular garlic harvested before the bulb is fully mature or, in some cases, before the bulb grows to any discernible shape. The immature bulb with the stalks can be added, cut or uncut, directly to soups and stews.

More recipes, cooking tips & food tales

Salted duck eggs

Salted duck eggs

Spices for garam masala

What is garam masala?

Baby pineapple

How to skin and cut pineapple without waste

Bacon, pancakes and egg

The better way to cook bacon

One-third cup of pork lard

How to make lard

Pandan growing in soil

How pandan leaves are used in cooking

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

Umami Days is powered by Apple, Canon, coffee & one bowl meals · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved