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Home ► Recipes ► Dairy-Free

Niratama (ニラ玉)

Updated: 03.17.25 | Marc Matsumoto | 10 Comments

4.84 from 6 votes
With loads of fragrant garlic chives scrambled together with savory egg, Niratama has become a staple of Japanese home cooking. In this recipe, I share my secret to ensure you get rich flavorful curds of egg that don't end up soggy from the chives.
Recipe Video
With garlicky Chinese chives scrambled together with big curds of savory egg, Niratama is am an easy and delicious Japanese side dish that's packed with vitamins and protein.

What is Niratama?

Niratama (ニラ玉) literally means "garlic chive eggs" in Japanese and is a dish of Chinese origin that's been adapted using Japanese ingredients. Flavorful and nutritionally dense, it's become a staple of home cooking in Japan, and it's eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Although there are many variations of Niratama, the most common method of making this dish is to saute the chives and then scramble in some eggs. In my version, I add seasonings and starch to the eggs to give them a wonderful savory flavor while preventing them from getting soggy.

Ingredients for Niratama

The ingredients for this dish are straightforward, but the balance of seasonings, garlic chives, and egg creates magic in your mouth.

Nira

Nira is the Japanese name for Garlic Chives (a.k.a. Chinese Chives). Related to the onion, it's long flat leaves look like blades of grass, but it has a mild garlicky fragrance and pleasantly fibrous texture that is almost crunchy. As the color would suggest, Nira is packed with vitamins and minerals. It's widely available in most Asian grocery stores, and if you can get your hands on the seeds, it's an easy-to-grow crop that will propagate like a weed if left unchecked.

Eggs

These are just regular chicken eggs, but I like to use fresh eggs of the highest quality for this dish to get a nice color.

Potato Starch

Potato starch is the secret ingredient that makes it possible to add vegetables (like Nira) with a relatively high moisture content to the eggs without making them watery.

Seasonings

The seasonings are just sugar, salt, and just enough soy sauce to give the niratama some flavor, without turning them brown. I also add a bit of dashi stock to the mixture to help dissolve the potato starch, while adding a bit of extra umami. If you don't have some dashi on hand, you can also use water.

Chinese chives and eggs on a brown plate and beige napkin with a wooden spoon and glass full of shochu on the rocks.

How is Niratama Prepared?

Niratama is pretty straightforward to prepare, but there are a few techniques I've incorporated from other dishes that make this recipe special.

Most versions of this dish will have you cut the garlic chives into longer pieces, but I like to chop them quite small as this makes it possible to add a higher ratio of chives to egg without having the whole thing turn into a tangled mess.

Nira tends to contain a lot of water, so there are two crucial steps to take to keep your eggs from getting soggy. The first is to saute the chives until they don't sweat liquid anymore. The second trick is to add some potato starch to the egg mixture, which helps prevent any liquid the eggs have absorbed, from leaching out.

Because potato starch won't dissolve evenly if you mix it directly into the eggs, I make a slurry using a bit of dashi and the rest of the seasonings. By beating the eggs into this slurry, you get even dispersal of the starch and seasoning mixture into the eggs, ensuring every bite of niratama is creamy and well-seasoned.

Niratama, or garlic chives with egg on a brown plate.

Once the Nira is sauteed, the eggs are added and left to cook a bit without scrambling them. This is the technique I use for my Scrambled Eggs recipe which creates big fluffy curds that are rich and creamy. Then I use chopsticks to gently scramble the eggs, allowing the uncooked egg to flow under the cooked curds.

The most important thing is to take the eggs off the heat while the eggs are a little less done than you want them to be, as the residual heat will continue to cook them. The niratama will get to the perfect consistency as they cool.

📖 Recipe

Chinese chives and eggs on a brown plate and beige napkin with a wooden spoon and glass full of shochu on the rocks.

Niratama (Chinese Chives & Eggs)

4.84 from 6 votes
Print Pin
Prep Time 2 minutes mins
Cook Time 2 minutes mins
Total Time 4 minutes mins
Yield 2 servings
YouTube video

Units

Ingredients 

  • 2 teaspoons potato starch
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons dashi stock (or water)
  • ½ teaspoon soy sauce
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 100 grams garlic chives (1 small bunch, chopped)

Instructions

  • Add the potato starch, sugar, salt, dashi, and soy sauce to a bowl and whisk until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
    Mixing a slurry of potato starch and Dashi for Niratama.
  • Break the eggs into the potato starch mixture and beat the eggs until they're mostly uniform in color.
    Beating eggs in a glass bowl with chopsticks.
  • Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add the vegetable oil and garlic chives.
    Sauteeing Nira (garlic chives) in a frying pan.
  • Sautee the chives until they're vibrant green and not sweating liquid anymore.
    Sauteed Chinese Chives in a frying pan for making Niratama.
  • Add the egg mixture and let it cook for a few seconds until the bottom layer of egg starts to go opaque.
    Egg added to the sautéed Nira.
  • Gently scramble the eggs, pulling up the cooked layer from the bottom of the pan and allowing the uncooked egg to run underneath.
    Scrambled egg with Chinese Chives, or Niratama.
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Nutrition Facts

Calories • 228kcalCarbohydrates • 6gProtein • 16gFat • 15gSaturated Fat • 6gCholesterol • 421mgSodium • 561mgPotassium • 324mgFiber • 1gSugar • 3gVitamin A • 2790IUVitamin C • 29mgCalcium • 109mgIron • 2.8mg

Comments

    4.84 from 6 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Kim - San Jose, CA says

    November 14, 2023 at 8:26 am

    5 stars
    Delicious but I think it’d be helpful to clarify whether the recipe calls for 2T of prepared liquid dashi, or 2T of dashi powder. My mom used the latter of Hondashi brand and it was much too salty.

    Reply
    • Marc Matsumoto says

      November 14, 2023 at 9:01 am

      Hi Kim, I'm sorry to hear your mother misunderstood. Dashi means "stock" in Japanese and it's explained in the headnotes. Additionally the ingredient in the recipe card is linked to the stock recipe, and the substitute is stated as "water" so I was hoping that would be clear enough. I've gone ahead and renamed the ingredient to "dashi stock" now so hopefully this makes it even more clear.

      Reply
      • Kim says

        November 14, 2023 at 11:19 am

        Thank you, Marc!!

        Reply
  2. Sand says

    September 06, 2020 at 2:57 am

    5 stars
    Healthy & Yummy start to my day! Added chia seeds to boost fiber and nutrients. Added a but more chives as well. Love this power breakfast! Thanks!

    Reply
  3. Sand says

    September 03, 2020 at 1:54 am

    5 stars
    Enjoyed the recipe. Will miss out the sugar and add 1 tablespoon of chia seeds instead to make it a bit healthier. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Marc Matsumoto says

      September 03, 2020 at 9:13 am

      I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, and great idea adding some chia seeds.

      Reply
  4. Skip says

    December 15, 2019 at 2:50 am

    Nice recipe. Thanks. Will use be using tonight for omurice..

    Reply
    • Marc Matsumoto says

      December 15, 2019 at 8:30 pm

      You're welcome Skip, hope you enjoy it!

      Reply
      • Skip says

        December 15, 2019 at 8:46 pm

        It was perfect! Nice change from usual plain omelet.

        Reply
        • Marc Matsumoto says

          December 16, 2019 at 9:24 am

          So glad to hear it!

          Reply
Marc Matsumoto

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