Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts

The garlic chives in my backyard are overgrown so I decided to cook Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts. It is a quick and easy dish, stir-frying garlic chives, bean sprouts and eggs for no more than a few minutes. The flavour is just soy sauce and salt with a couple of pinches of black pepper.

Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry originated from China. The original recipe consists of only garlic chives and eggs, but my version includes bean sprouts. It is an extremely simple dish and takes only 10 minutes to make!

Two Versions of Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry

The original dish without bean sprouts is called 韭菜炒蛋 (jiǔcài chǎo dàn) in Chinese, which means scrambled egg with garlic chives. But in Japan, it is called ‘niratama’ (ニラ玉). ‘Nira’ (ニラ) is garlic chives and ‘tama’ (玉) comes from the word  ‘tamago’ (玉子), which means egg.

Niratama is known to be a stamina-boosting food due to the abundance of nutrients in the dish. Garlic chives contains Vitamin B1, B2, and iron to help your body recover from fatigue. It also contains nutrients to improve immunity. The protein from the eggs also helps build your body.

There are two methods of making niratama.

1. Scrambled egg method – in this method, egg is firstly cooked like a scrambled egg, leaving large chunks, then mixed into the stir-fried garlic chives strips.
2. Omelette method – garlic chives are chopped into small pieces and mixed with beaten eggs. Cook it the way you make a large pancake.

I think that method 1 is more common judging from the images I can find on the web. My cooking method is also the scrambled egg method and that’s why I call my recipe stir-fry. I guess it’s pretty hard to make it like an omelette with bean sprouts added to the ingredients.

What’s in my Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts

The ingredients consist of 3 key items, each of which play a significant role in this dish. The quantity of each key ingredient needs to be well balanced, so that you get a good amount of bright green and yellow among the bean sprouts. To give a nutty fragrance to the dish, I used sesame oil to stir-fry.

• Garlic chives cut into 4cm/1½” long strips
• Bean sprouts
• Beaten eggs
• Sesame oil
• Soy sauce
• Salt
• Pepper

The length of the garlic chives can be a bit shorter or longer. I cut them to become a similar length to the bean sprouts. The smaller the garlic chives pieces are, the stronger the garlic flavour becomes. This is because the strong garlic flavour comes from the inside flesh of the garlic chives.

I added bean sprouts to increase the volume as well as to give a subtle garlic flavour to the dish. You can of course make the traditional niratama instead and omit bean sprouts. You will then need to adjust the quantity of seasonings accordingly.

How to Make Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts

It is very quick and easy to make today’s dish. The only thing you need to be careful of is cooking the eggs in the first step. You need to stop cooking the eggs before they are cooked through. This is because the egg is cooked further after the vegetables are stir-fried.

1. Heat sesame oil in a frying pan and cook the eggs.
2. While the surface of the egg is still wet and uncooked, transfer the egg to the bowl.
3. Add more sesame oil to the pan and stir-fry bean sprouts and garlic chives.
4. Return the egg to the pan and continue to stir-fry, breaking the egg into smaller pieces.
5. Add salt and pepper and mix.
6. Add soy sauce around the outer edge of the pan, then mix well.

Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts can be a light main dish or a side dish. Instead of serving a Western-style egg dish such as omelette or scrambled egg, why don’t you try Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts for a change?

Yumiko

5 from 3 votes

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Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

10 mins

 

Garlic Chives and Egg Stir-fry with Bean Sprouts is a quick and easy dish, made by stir-frying garlic chives, bean sprouts, and eggs. The flavour is just soy sauce and salt with a couple of pinches of black pepper. The sesame oil used to stir-fry the ingredients adds a nutty flavour too.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Main, Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: egg recipe, garlic chives recipe, stir-fry recipe

Serves: 2 as main

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 50g/1.8oz garlic chives cut into 4cm/1½” long strips (note 1)
• 3 eggs beaten in a bowl
• 200g/7.1oz bean sprouts
• 1½ tbsp sesame oil
• ¼-⅜ tsp salt (note 2)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1-2 pinches of pepper

Instructions

1. Put half of the sesame oil in a frying pan and heat over medium heat.

2. Add the egg to the pan and mix quickly using cooking chopsticks or a fork as if you are making a scrambled egg.

3. While the surface of the egg is still uncooked and slightly wet, transfer it to the bowl (note 3, see the step-by-step photo).

4. Add the remaining sesame oil to the pan (heat is still medium heat).

5. Add the bean sprouts and garlic chives to the pan and stir for a couple of minutes until the garlic chives change the colour to darker green and wilt.

6. Return the egg to the pan, add salt and pepper and mix, breaking the egg into smaller pieces.

7. Add soy sauce around the outer edge of the pan, then quickly mix into the stir-fry (note 4).

8. Transfer to a serving plate and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

1. You can cut garlic chives a bit shorter or longer. I cut them into a similar size to the bean sprouts. If you cut garlic chives into shorter strips, you will get a stronger garlic flavour, and if you cut them longer, you will get less garlic flavour.

2. I used ¼ teaspoon of salt but adjust the amount of salt depending on your palate.

3. You don’t want to cook the egg too much at this point since the egg is returned to the pan later and cooked further.

4. By putting the soy sauce directly onto the hot pan, the soy sauce gets burnt momentarily and produces a slightly charred flavour, which is delicious.

5. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 214g calories: 236kcal fat: 18g (28%) saturated fat: 3.9g (20%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 5.8g monounsaturated fat: 6.8g cholesterol: 279mg (93%) sodium: 550mg (23%) potassium: 340mg (10%) carbohydrates: 7.8g (3%) dietary fibre: 2.5g (10%) sugar: 4.9g protein: 14g vitamin a: 30% vitamin c: 46% calcium: 6.1% iron: 15%