Vegetables Category

Fresh peas are sweeter and more tender than their dry counterparts. To shell one, just pull down the string and squeeze the pod at the seams, then scrape out the peas and discard the pods. As with corn, freshness is crucial since peas begin converting their sugar into starch as soon as they're picked. The freshest pods are brightly colored and snap crisply when you bend them. Fresh peas don't need to be soaked and they cook fairly quickly.

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).

Asian cooks like to pickle this, or else use it in soups or stir-fries. If you find gai choy too pungent to stir-fry, blanch it first in salted water.

Look for this in Asian markets. It's sold fresh, frozen, dried, or powdered, but use the dried or powdered versions only in a pinch.

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 appear in the summer months, and they're so sweet that it's well worth the trouble to shell them. Freshness is crucial, so look for brightly colored pods that are crisp enough to snap. Petits pois are a small and tender variety.

Almost every cuisine on our planet has found an important role for garlic. Europeans mince it raw and add it to salad dressings, or sauté it and use it to flavor their sauces. Asian cooks add it to to their stir-fries; Indian cooks to their curries; Hispanic cooks to meats and vegetables. And Americans have lately taken a fancy to roasting whole bulbs, and then spreading the garlic like a soft cheese on bread or crackers. Garlic's good for you, too. Researchers believe that garlic can bolster the immune system, lower blood pressure and prevent heart disease, and at least some people believe that it can ward off vampires and insects. The only downside is that raw or undercooked garlic tends to linger on the breath, though many people are more than willing to pay that price. Types of garlic include the mild green garlic, the purple-skinned Italian garlic and Mexican garlic, and the common white-skinned garlic = California garlic, which is the most pungent of all.

When rehydrated in water, garlic flakes provide much of the flavor and texture of fresh garlic.

These are sold in spray bottles or in small jars. Look for them in the spice section of larger supermarkets. To make your own: Strain the juice from a jar of minced or pressed garlic.

Garlic powder provides some of the flavor, but not the texture, of fresh garlic. It disperses well in liquids, so it's a good choice for marinades.

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.

With its sweet yet pungent flavor, ginger has become a mainstay of many of the world's cuisines. European cooks like to use dried, ground ginger to flavor gingerbread and other baked goods. Asian and Indian cooks prefer their ginger fresh, and they use it in spicy sauces and stir-fries. Ginger not only tastes good, it's also believed to have medicinal properties, and people sometimes use it to soothe their upset stomachs and boost their energy. Ground ginger isn't a good substitute for fresh, but dried whole ginger will work in a pinch, as will the minced or puréed ginger that's sold in jars.

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.

Like garlic powder, granulated garlic provides the flavor, but not the texture, of fresh garlic. It disperses well in liquids.

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.

These are meant to be cooked and eaten, pods and all. They're best if they're steamed or stir-fried just until they're tender but still crisp. Select bright green beans that snap when broken in half. Their peak season is in the summer.

Cabbage is quite versatile. You can cut it into chunks, boil it, and serve it with corned beef or other fatty meats. You can also use cooked leaves as wrappers for meat fillings, or shred raw ones for cole slaw. Select heavy heads of cabbage that have shiny leaves.

These pink-tipped, shiny pieces of young ginger are mild and usually don't need to be peeled. They're easy to find in Asian markets.

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 onions that have small bulbs and long green stalks. They're usually eaten raw, but you can also grill or sauté them. Some people also use the term green onions to refer to onion tops, shallot tops and young leeks.

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.