Allium monanthum


Allium monanthum, the Korean wild chive, is a spring vegetable with minuscule bulbous roots that have a mild onion flavor and found in the woodlands of Korea, Japan, northeastern Russia, and northeastern China.

Description

Allium monanthum is unusual in the genus in being usually dioecious, but rarely hermaphrodite or gynomonoecious. The species produces a single round bulb about in diameter. Scapes are relatively short for the genus, rarely more than tall. Leaves are flat, long and narrow, longer than the scape. Umbels are small, with one flower on pistillate plants and 4-5 flowers on staminate plants. All flowers are white, pink or red.

Culinary uses

Korea

Called dallae in Korean, Korean wild chives are used in Korean herbal cooking alongside other san-namul such as deodeok, angelica-tree, gondre and Siberian onion. Having a similar flavor profile to Tree onion, Korean wild chives can be eaten raw or blanched as a namul, pickled as a jangajji, or pan-fried to make buchimgae. As a herb, Korean wild chives make a good last minute addition to doenjang-jjigae and other jjigae. Soy sauce based dips are often flavored with Korean wild chives. In North Korea, radish water kimchi flavored with Korean wild chives is a popular spring banchan.