Vegetables for beginners

There are hundreds of different vegetables. Some of these are well-known and are exported all around the world. Others are only known and appreciated locally. Some grow in the tropics, others only in temperate climates. Of some vegetables the leaves are eaten, others are grown for their fruits, roots, or stems.

It is not always clear if a plant should be considered a vegetable. Some could just as well be called a fruit (e.g. avocado, tomato), while others could be called a herb or spice (e.g. garlic, chili peppers).

Bell pepper

This page shows a selection of vegetables. Many more can be found in the World Crops Database, where each vegetable has a separate page with an introduction, some basic information, a number of photos, and sometimes one or more recipes (main dishes, snacks, salads and other culinary experiments).

As most of the vegetables are not related to each other, they are present here below in a random order. Follow the links or click on the photographs below to learn more about each of these vegetables. Also included are some proverbs and quotes about vegetables.

Eat more fruits and vegetables because they are an important source of vitamins and minerals and form part of a healthy diet.

Tomato
Tomato
Cucumber
Cucumber
Hot Chili Peppers
chilli_peppers_red_150
Eggplant (Aubergine)
Eggplant
Avocado
Avocado
Cauliflower
Cauliflower
Indian spinach (Malabar spinach)
Indian spinach
Olive
Olive
Okra (Lady's finger)
Okra
Red amaranth
Amaranthus
Carrot
Carrot
Garlic
Garlic
Yard long bean
Yard-long bean
Chickpea
Chickpea
Bitter gourd
Bitter gourd
Teasle gourd
Teasle gourd
Elephant foot yam
Elephant foot
Ash gourd
Ash gourd

Note: All these vegetables and many other agricultural crops can now also be found in the World Crops Database.

World Crops Database logo
Visit the World Crops Database

Proverbs about vegetables

  • Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with
    hatred.
  • As the garden grows so does the gardener.
  • It's no use boiling your cabbage twice.
  • Better to eat vegetables and fear no creditors, than eat duck and hide from them.
  • Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them.

Quotes about vegetables

  • A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables. (Gertrude Stein)
  • Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow. (William Blake)
  • It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. (Lewis Grizzard)
  • An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh. (Will Rogers)
  • This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes, these onions … will soon become me. Such a tasty fact! (Mike Garofalo)
  • Cabbage: A vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head. (Ambrose Bierce)

Did you know that?

  • Tomato and potato are the vegetables that are grown in the largest quantities around the world.
  • The most widely used vegetable is the onion.
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