Fruit Vegetables Category

This is one of the tastier winter squashes, with creamy pulp that tastes a bit like sweet potatoes. Choose squash that are heavy for their size.

Look for these in Middle Eastern markets.

This is a spongy, mild-tasting vegetable that's meaty yet low in calories. It's never eaten raw, but it can be baked, grilled, or sautéed. The best eggplants are shiny, firm (but not too hard), and heavy for their size, with bright green stems and unbroken skin. Smaller eggplants tend to have fewer bitter seeds, as do "male" ones with round scars at their blossom (non-stem) end. (The scars on "female" eggplants look like dashes.) Freshness is important, so don't store eggplants for very long.

These Spanish black olives are soaked in sherry.

This foot-long slicing cucumber is pricier and less flavorful than other varieties, but it has less conspicuous seeds, a thinner skin, and a plastic wrapper--instead of a wax coating--to improve shelf life. All of this saves preparation time, since there's no need to peel or seed the cucumber before slicing it. This is a good variety if you focused on looks--you can cut it into round, green trimmed slices.

These are similar to jalapeno peppers, but with thinner walls. They're great in salsas. Green Fresnos are available in the summer. the hotter red ones come out in the fall.

This is in season from late fall through spring. It's not quite as buttery as the Hass avocado, but its flavor is excellent.

This sweet and mild squash has a fuzzy feel to it.

These are small, purple Italian olives are either dry-cured (making them black and wrinkled) or brine-cured (making them dark purple and smooth-skinned).

You can find these throughout the year at all but the most poorly stocked markets. The ones you find in supermarkets are usually waxed to hold in moisture and improve shelf-life--these should be peeled or at least scrubbed well before serving. Unwaxed cucumbers don't need to be peeled, but better cooks often do so since the peels tend to be thick and bitter. It's also a good idea to remove the seeds from these kinds of cucumbers; just cut them in half lengthwise and scrape them out. Select cukes that are firm, dark green, and rounded at the tips.

These are tiny eggplants, the size of an egg or smaller. Their color ranges from white to greenish-yellow.

These small, bumpy greed cucumbers are used to make Gherkin pickles or, if pickled while still small, cornichon pickles.

Ghost peppers are a very hot (over 1,000,000 scovilles) hybrid between Capsicum chinese and Capsicum frutescens. It is grown and used in northern India.

You can stuff these and bake them, or slice and sauté them.

This is an orange-red variety of Hubbard squash

This has a pleasant flavor, but it doesn't have as much flesh as other squashes and the heavy rind makes it hard to cut before cooking. Select specimens that are heavy for their size, and that have a dull finish. Those with shiny rinds were probably picked too young, and won't be as sweet.

A generic black Greek olive is large, dark purple and brine-cured. Popular varieties include Kalamata, Amphissa, and Royal.

Napfilion and Ionian olives are the most common types of green Greek olives.

This has a very mild flavor.

Green olives are picked from the tree before they're completely ripened. The most common variety is the Manzanilla olive, which is often pitted and stuffed. Other green olives varieties include the Agrinion, Arauco, Arbequina, Atalanta, green Cerignola, cracked Provençal, Kura, Lucque, Nafplion, Picholine, Sevillano, and Sicilian.

These are picked before they turn red. Southerners like to fry them.

One of the more popular Mexican chilies, the guajillo (or dried mirasol chili) has a fruity flavor and medium heat (Scoville heat scale of 2,500 to 5,000 SHU). It's smooth, shiny, and reddish-brown, and it has a tough skin, so it needs to be soaked longer than other chiles. These are commonly used for marinades and adobos.

These are moderately hot.

Don't confuse dried habaneros with the fresh version, which goes by the same name. These extremely hot chiles are wrinkled and orange.

These extremely hot orange chiles have a fruity flavor. They're best in the summertime.

This is available year-round and has a rich flavor and creamy texture. The skin turns almost black when the avocado is ripe, which can camouflage bad bruises. This is the best variety by far for guacamole, but it turns a bit mushy in salads.

These are like bell peppers, only they're sweeter and have thicker walls. They come in different colors.

These are hot.

This is a juicy, meaty olive.

This variety has tasty flesh, but it's too large for many families to handle and the rind is hard to cut though. Some grocers cut them into smaller pieces before putting them out.

This is fairly bitter. Choose melons that are bright green. They turn tough and yellow as they age. You can eat the peels and seeds, or scrape out the seeds to reduce the bitterness.

These are smaller than American eggplants, but they're otherwise very similar.

These popular chilis have a good amount of heat and rich flavor. Green jalapenos are best in the late summer, while red jalapenos appear in the fall. Canned jalapenos aren't as fiery as fresh. When dried and smoked, this pepper is called a chipotle.

These small red chilis are hot, and similar to the chile de arbol. Before using them, soak them in warm water for a few minutes.

These are just like English cucumbers, only with bumps. Like English cucumbers, they don't have to be peeled or seeded.

Like other Asian eggplants, Japanese eggplants have thin skins, and a sweet, delicate flavor.

This orange-fleshed winter squash has a striated green rind. It's sweeter, drier, and less fibrous than other winter squash, and it tastes a bit like sweet potatoes.

You can find these popular Greek black olives in most large supermarkets. They're salty and have a rich, fruity flavor. These can be eaten out of hand, or used to make tapenades.

This mild Kashmiri chili is used in Indian cooking to add flavor and color.

Kershaw squash is an heirloom squash. It is mostly grown in the American south. Kershaw squash was cultivated by native Americans.

This short, versatile cucumber is used for both slicing and pickling. It's small, with bumpy yellow or green skin. Like the English cucumber, it has a thin skin and inconspicuous seeds.

Kittely is a small round eggplant. It is used in soups and stews.

This melon has a gorgeous orange rind with spikes--poke a stick in it and you'd have a medieval mace for a Halloween costume. The yellow-green flesh has the consistency of jello, and tastes a bit like cucumbers.