Vegetables Category

This excellent Mexican chili is loaded with flavor but hard to find. It's used to make mole negro and bean dishes. It is moderately hot.

These look a bit like caterpillars, and they taste like Jerusalem artichokes. They're popular in France but hard to find in the U.S. Your best bet would be an Asian market.

Like rapini, Chinese broccoli has small stems and green heads (which actually are flowers) and lots of leaves. But Chinese broccoli is leafier and less bitter than rapini. It's a great vegetable to stir-fry, but you can also steam or boil it, as you would broccoli.

This has a stronger flavor than ordinary celery, and it's often used in stir-fries and soups. Look for it in Asian markets.

Compared to the familiar American eggplant, Chinese eggplants have thinner skins, a more delicate flavor, and not as many of the seeds that tend to make eggplants bitter.

This is similar to spinach, only it's prettier, tastier, and more nutritious. Look for it in Asian markets.

These are darker, milder versions of the chipotle chile.

These dried and smoked jalapeño peppers lend a wonderful, complex flavor to sauces. They're usually rehydrated and canned in adobo sauce, but you can also buy them dried in cellophane bags. They are medium hot.

This is a general term in Chinese for the tender inner stalks and flowers of green vegetables. White choy sum usually refers to bok choy, while green choy sum refers to yau choy.

This Asian potherb is used to flavor salads, soups, sukiyaki and other dishes. The leaves are usually blanched briefly to soften them and deepen their color, but young leaves can be served raw. Add them to cooked dishes at the last minute, as they become bitter if overcooked. Some people may have an alergic reaction to chrysanthemum leaves.

Cinnamon cap mushrooms have a firm texture and an earthy flavor.

These round, flat Italian onions are about one to two inches in diameter. They're available in the fall.

Varieties include the brown clamshell mushroom (left). This mushroom goes well with seafood or meats. Cook them before eating.

It's hard to find these fresh, but dried cloud ears are an excellent substitute. Reconstitute them by soaking or simmering them in lots of water for a few hours.

This is a favorite of Southern cooks, who often cook them with salt pork or smoked ham hocks. Frozen collards are an acceptable substitute for fresh.

Thai recipes sometimes call for these roots, but they're hard to find in markets. The best source is to pull out a cilantro plant in your garden, or you can use cilantro stems instead.

Corn salad has tender leaves and a very mild flavor.

This yellow Mexican chili is used to make soups, stews, and mole sauces. It's fruity and moderately hot and somewhat hard to find.

This Middle-Eastern summer squash looks a lot like spaghetti squash, only it has a thin, edible skin. It's similar to zucchini, but its larger size makes it a natural for stuffing.

These aromatic green olives are marinated in a solution with herbes de Provence.

These are closely related to common white mushrooms, but they're a bit more flavorful. Large cremini mushrooms are called portobello mushrooms.

This is a peppery green that's great in salads, sandwiches, and soups. It's attractive enough to make a good garnish as well. There are several varieties, including watercress, upland cress, curly cress, and land cress. Cress is highly perishable, so try to use it as soon as possible after you buy it.

They are moderately hot.

These sweet, mild peppers are usually sold while yellowish-green. They become hotter and redder as they mature.

You can use this crisp, bitter green in salads or cook it as a side dish. The outer leaves are green and somewhat bitter; the pale inner leaves are more tender and mild. Don't confuse this with Belgian endive, which the British call chicory and the French call endive.

These are about half the size of cherry tomatoes.

Daikon is larger and milder than its relative, the red radish. The Japanese like to grate it and serve it with sushi or sashimi, but you can also pickle it, stir-fry it, or slice it into salads. Japanese daikons tend to be longer and skinnier than their Chinese counterparts, but the two varieties can be used interchangeably. Choose specimens that are firm and shiny. They don't store well, so try to use them right away.

These have a pungent, peppery flavor that works wonders for otherwise bland salads and sandwiches. They're too delicate to cook, so always serve them raw.

Dandelions have a somewhat bitter flavor, which Europeans appreciate more than Americans. Older dandelion greens should be cooked; younger ones can be cooked or served raw as a salad green. They're available year-round, but they're best in the spring.

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.

You can eat these, pods and all, just like green beans.

Look for these in Middle Eastern markets.

This is a salty seaweed, so it makes a great salt substitute in soups and stews. Some people eat it raw, like beef jerky. It's rich in iron.

These are fresh soybeans, that are usually sold shelled and frozen, but you can sometimes find them in the produce section, still in their pods. They're rich in protein, fiber, and other nutrients. Fresh edamame pods make great, healthy appetizers. Just steam the pods and have your guests split the pods open and eat the beans inside. Edamame, whether fresh or frozen, is terrific in soups and salads.

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.

This looks like an overgrown garlic, but it's more closely related to a leek. It's much milder than ordinary garlic, so it's a good choice if you want to impart the flavor of garlic to a delicately flavored dish. It's often sold in a mesh stocking to keep the cloves together.

These Spanish black olives are soaked in sherry.

This crunchy new French variety blends sweet and bitter flavors.

This category includes Belgian endive, curly endive, frisee, and escarole.

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.

Enoki mushrooms have a delicate fruity flavor. They're usually served raw.

Escarole has sturdy leaves and a slightly bitter flavor. Young escarole leaves are tender enough to add to salads, otherwise escarole is best cooked as a side dish or used in soups.

Fennel tastes like licorice or anise, and it's commonly used in Italian dishes. It's very versatile; you can sauté it and add it to sauces, braise it as a side dish, or serve it raw as a crudité.

For more information, see the Wegman's Food Market's page on Fennel.

When a fern first emerges from the ground, its uncoiled frond is called a fiddlehead. Edible varieties of fiddleheads include those from the ostrich fern and the less common wood fern. They're available in the late spring and early summer. Select the smallest, freshest-looking fiddleheads you can find. Warning: Fiddleheads from bracken ferns resemble those from ostrich ferns, but are believed to be carcinogenic. Be very careful if you're gathering fiddleheads from the wild. Undercooked ostrich fern fiddleheads also have been linked to some cases of food poisoning.