Vegetables Category

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 peeled cabbage palm buds, and they're terrific in salads or as a vegetable side dish. You can buy them fresh only in Florida, but the canned version is quite good.

Hedgehog mushrooms are similar to chanterelles in color and flavor.

Hijiki has a mild flavor, so it's a good choice if you want to slip a sea vegetable unobtrusively into your soups and stews in order to fortify them with calcium, iron, and other nutrients. When rehydrated, it roughly quadruples in size, so a little goes a long way.

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 is a very pungent brown root that's usually peeled and grated to make a condiment for meats. Its intense flavor and aroma dissipate quickly when exposed to air, so it should be grated just before serving or mixed with something sour (like vinegar, lemon juice, or beet juice) to lock in the heat. It's easiest to use a blender or food processor to grate it. Fresh horseradish is surprisingly potent, so make sure your kitchen is well ventilated, wear rubber gloves, and don't rub your eyes.

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 a fungus that forms black kernels on ears of corn in damp weather. It's a prized delicacy in Mexico, and tastes a bit like wild mushrooms. You can get it fresh or frozen by mail order, or canned in some Hispanic markets. WARNING: May cause contractions in pregnant women.

This is prized for its crispness and longevity in the refrigerator, but it's a bit short on flavor and nutrients.

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 green or yellow beans are like ordinary green beans, but they're flatter. Select small, brightly colored beans that snap when you break them in half.

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.

Don't confuse this with yamaimo.

These look like small, knobby potatoes, but they have a crisp texture and an interesting earthy flavor. You can eat them raw, stir-fry them, or bake them like potatoes. It's best not to peel them, but you'll want to scrub off the dirt. If you slice them, dunk them immediately in acidulated water to keep them from discoloring.

This tan-skinned tuber has a mild, nondescript flavor, but a nice crunchy texture. It's a good, cheap substitute for water chestnuts in stir-fries. Since it doesn't discolor, it's also a great vegetable to serve raw on a crudité platter. Peel it before using.

These are tossed into stews in Africa, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.

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.

Kale is a kind of cabbage with dark green, wrinkled leaves. It's prized more for its hardiness than its flavor or delicacy, but it continues to be popular in the South, where it's often cooked as a side dish. Remove and discard the tough center stalks before cooking. Varieties include curly kale, dinosaur kale = black cabbage = lacinato kale, and the popular Red Russian kale = ragged jack kale.

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.

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.

A kohlrabi resembles a turnip, only it's sweeter and more delicately flavored. It's light green and sometimes sold with its edible greens attached. It can be eaten raw or cooked. Choose small ones, and peel before using.

These can be cooked just like Swiss chard. Remove the stems first if they're too thick.

Like other sea vegetables, konbu is rich in minerals. It's very popular in Japan, where it's used to flavor dashi, a soup stock. Konbu is usually sold dried, in strips or sheets. Choose konbu that's very dark, almost black, and don't wipe off the white residue that often appears on the surface; it's very flavorful.

This African green is very hard to find fresh in the United States, and the canned version is terrible.

This Middle Eastern cracked green olive is hard to find in the U.S.

This hard-to-find sweet pepper is smaller and sweeter than its cousin, the bell pepper, with which it's interchangeable.

This protein-rich seaweed is popular in Britain and Japan. To rehydrate, soak it in water for about an hour, then add it to soups and salads. Laver is sometimes called nori, but that name is more commonly used for the dark sheets that the Japanese use to wrap sushi, which are made from the same plant.

With their crispness and mild flavor, these lettuces are great in salads and sandwiches.

Leeks look like large green onions, and they have a more complex onion flavor. They're often cooked as a vegetable side dish, or used in soups. Be sure to wash them thoroughly before cooking as the leaves are notorious for collecting dirt.

This versatile cucumber is sweet and flavorful, and doesn't have much of the chemical that makes other cucumbers bitter and hard to digest. Though it's often served raw, it's also a good pickling cucumber.

This Indonesian rhizome looks a bit like ginger, only it's smaller and darker. It's hard to find in the U.S., but your best bet is to look in Asian markets. It's sold fresh, frozen, pickled, dried, or powdered. Used the dried or powdered versions only in a pinch.

These are mild salad greens that are always served fresh, either in salads or as garnishes. There are four basic categories: iceberg lettuce, with leaves that grow in a dense "head," leaf lettuce, with loosely gathered leaves, butterhead lettuce, with tender leaves that form a soft head, and romaine lettuce, with closely packed leaves in an elongated head. Select lettuce that has rich color and crisp, fresh-looking leaves.

These small Italian olives are brine-cured.