Vegetable - Ginger

Ginger

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About the Vegetable :Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family (Zingiberaceae). Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal. The distantly related dicots in the Asarum genus have the common name wild ginger because of their similar taste.Pungent, spicy ginger root is a popular root herb of culinary as well as medicinal importance. The root, which composes unique phyto-chemical compounds, still finds a special place in many traditional Indian and Chinese medicines disease preventing and health promoting properties.The spicy root is actually an underground rhizome of small herb plant belonging to the Zingiberaceae family, of the genus: Zingiber.Its root features knotty finger-like projections that grow downward from the ground surface. Fresh raw root has a silver gray outer surface. Cut sections feature creamy white, yellow, or red-colored crunchy flesh depending upon the variety. The root often contains fibrils running through its center, especially in over-maturede size size roots. Ginger has pungent, spicy and aromatic smell that comes from essential oils and phenolic compounds such as gingerols and shogaols in the root.

Scientific / Binomial name : Zingiber officinale.

Popularly Known as :Adrak, Alla, Shunti,Inji, Allam,

Usage :

• Fresh or dried ginger root along with garlic, cilantro, onion, tomato, cumin and mustard-seeds made to a flavourful curry paste which is then added to variety of vegetable, meat and curry/soup preparations.
• The herb root is also used in the preparation of mango, lemon and spondias (ambara in India) pickles.
• Fresh root can be used in the preparation of variety of spicy snacks, candies, and ginger bread in the food industry.
• Ginger tea is a popular drink in many Asian countries.
• Ginger root is available in many varieties See more varieties
in the market.

Vegetable - Sweet Corn

Sweet Corn

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About the Vegetable :Sweet corn also called sugar corn and pole corn) is a variety of maize with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the endosperm of the corn kernel. Genetically, it differs from the field corn by mutation at the sugary (su) locus. The crop has achieved success as one of the important commercial cash crops in many tropical and semi-tropical countries.Unlike field corn varieties, which are harvested when the kernels are dry and mature (dent stage), sweet corn is picked when immature (milk stage) and prepared and eaten as a vegetable, rather than a grain. Since the process of maturation involves converting sugar to starch, sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen, before the kernels become tough and starchy.

Scientific / Binomial name : Zea mays var. saccharata.

Popularly Known as :Sugar corn, Pole corn, Kakdi, Makkai Jola, Cholam, Mokka Jonna

Usage :

• Farm fresh, raw milky sweet corn can be eaten as it is even without boiled or steamed.
• The whole corncob may be grilled and served with salt and pepper seasoning.
• The whole cob may be steamed, or boiled in salt water and served with butter or oil.
• Boiled kernels are an excellent accompaniment in salads, pizza, pasta, risotto, stews, omelets, fried-rice, rice pulav, etc.
• Sweet corn soup and chowder are favourite starters in almost all corners of the world.
• Water used for boiling the corn is used in soups. It can be used along with onion, carrots, parsnip, celery-stalks, etc., in the preparation of delicious vegetable stock.
• Interesting snacks called Popcorns are made and served.
• This Vegetable is also available in many colours and Varieties in the market.Show varieties.Hence the combination of this vegetable with different colours makes the recipe more colourful and tasty too.

Vegetable - Garlic

Garlic

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About the Vegetable :About the Vegetable : Garlic is a bulbous plant.It has been recognized in almost all the cultures for its medicinal properties as well as culinary uses. This wonderful herbal plant, grown for its underground root or bulb, contains health promoting phyto-nutrient substances that have proven benefits against coronary artery diseases, infections and cancers.

Scientific / Binomial name : Allium sativum

Popularly Known as :Allium sativum, Lehsun, Bolloli, Vellulipaya, Bellulli, Yellipaya

Usage :It is used in many ways.

• Garlic is one of the common ingredients employed to enhance the flavour of vegetable, meat, and seafood preparations.
• This Vegetable is also available in many colours and Varieties in the market.Show varieties
• Its cloves are added to give a spicy pungent flavour to the preparations like breads, toast and Bruschetta (grilled bread slices rubbed with garlic paste with toppings such as olive oil, pepper, tomato, cheese, meat...etc.).
• The cloves also been used in the preparation of seasonal soups, chutney, and sauces.
• Tender garlic tops are used like vegetables just like scallions and chives along with vegetables, eggs in some recipe preparations in East Asian countries.

Vegetable - Cluster Beans

Cluster Beans

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About the Vegetable :About the Vegetable :Guar grows well in arid to semiarid areas, but frequent rainfall is necessary. This legume is a very valuable plant within a crop rotation cycle, as it lives in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Guar grows well in arid to semiarid areas, but frequent rainfall is necessary. This legume is a very valuable plant within a crop rotation cycle, as it lives in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. In fact, agriculturists in semi-arid regions of Rajasthan follow crop-rotation and use guar as a source to replenish the soil with essential fertilizers and nitrogen fixation, before the next crop. Guar as a plant has a multitude of different functions for human and animal nutrition but its gelling agent containing seeds (guar gum) are today the most important use.

Scientific / Binomial name : Cyamopsis tetragonoloba

Popularly Known as :Cluster beans, Cholakaya, Gavar, Guar, Guwar

Usage :

• Its beans are very nutritious and available in varieties in the market.Show varieties.The guar protein is not usable by humans unless toasted to destroy the trypsin inhibitor.
• Guar leaves can be used like spinach and the pods are prepared like salad or vegetables.
• Guar gum:In several food and beverages guar gum is used as additive in order to change its viscosity or as fiber source.

  Food	Function
  Baked goods	Dough improver
  Cheese	Texture improver
  Ice Cream	Smaller ice crystals
  Fried Products	Oil uptake reduction

Vegetable - Capsicum

Capsicum

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About the Vegetable :Capsicum or Bell pepper,is the most popular of the chilli peppers in the Capsicum annum family. It is a fruit pod of small perennial shrub in the nightshade or Solanaceae family, in the genus, capsicum. Unlike their fellow capsicum members, sweet peppers have characteristic bell shape with crunchy, thick fleshy texture. Additionally, on comparison with other members, bell peppers feature characteristically less pungency that ranges from zero to very minimal hotness. For the same reasons, they generally treated like any other common vegetables instead of spice.In structure, sweet pepper features blocky, cube like outer flesh enclosing numerous tiny, white, or cream colored, circular and flat seeds. The seeds are actually clinging on to the central core (placenta). The fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. The piquant (spicy) varieties are commonly called chili peppers, or simply "chilies". The large, mild form is called red pepper, green pepper, or bell pepper in North America and typically just "capsicum" in New Zealand,Australia, and India. The fruit is called paprika in some other countries

Scientific / Binomial name : Capsicum annum

Popularly Known as :Bell Pepper, Bengaluru Mirchi, Banglore Mirapakaya, Shimla Mirchi

Usage :

• Fresh raw bell peppers are being used as vegetables in cuisines. They can be eaten raw as in salads or cooked in stir-fries.
• In many parts of South Asia, they are mixed with other vegetables like potato, carrots, aubergine, green beans etc., along with tomato, garlic, onion, mustard seeds, cumin, and other spices in various mouth-watering stir-fries (sabzi).
• They can also be stuffed with rice, meat, cheddar cheese, dried fruits, nuts, etc., and, then cooked/roasted.
• They can also be grilled and served with sauce, cheese, and olive oil or with dips.
• Finely chopped sweet peppers can be used in Chinese-style vegetable stir-fries, and noodles.
• Sweet peppers are one of the popular ingredients in Italian pizza and pasta.
• Capsicum species have also found use in medicines.
• This Vegetable is also available in many colours and varieties in the market..Hence the combination of this vegetable with different colours makes the recipe more colourful and tasty too.

Culinary Used Areas :Capsicum is native to Americas, where they have been cultivated for thousands of years. In modern times, it is cultivated worldwide, and has become a key element in many regional cuisines.

Vegetable - Broccoli

Broccoli

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About the Vegetable :Broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family, whose large flowering head is used as a vegetable. The word broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccolo, which means "the flowering crest of a cabbage".Broccoli is a cabbage family vegetable grown for its nutritious flower heads. Its green or purple florets have been known for several noteworthy, unique phyto-nutrients that are found to have disease prevention and health promoting properties.Broccoli is a result of careful breeding of cultivated leafy cole crops in the Northern Mediterranean.Many Varieties are available.Broccoli is a cool-season crop and demands fertile rich and well-drained soil to flourish. Technically, broccoli is categorized into two main types according to their appearance; heading and sprouting. Heading variety forms a large, solid head, whereas sprouting types forms many smaller heads or florets.Several different hybrid-mix of broccoli have developed with other cruciferous family members such as broccoflower (hybrid of broccoli and cauliflower), broccolini (broccoli and chinese-kale), etc.

Scientific / Binomial name : Brassica oleracea var. italica.

Usage :

• Young, tender, broccoli heads may be eaten raw or as salad.
• Its flower heads are much sought-after in stir-fries; either alone or with other vegetables, beans and poultry, in mouth-watering recipes mixed with sauce, oil,onions, pepper, and garlic.

Vegetable - Beet root

Beet root

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About the Vegetable :The beetroot is the taproot portion of the beet plant,[1] also known in North America as the table beet, garden beet, red or golden beet, or informally simply as the beet. It is several of the cultivated varieties of beet (Beta vulgaris) grown for their edible taproots and their greens. These Varieties have been classified as B. vulgaris subsp. vulgaris Conditiva Group.Beets are highly nutritious and “cardiovascular health” friendly root vegetables. Certain unique pigment antioxidants in this root as well as in its top-greens have found to offer protection against coronary artery disease and stroke; lower cholesterol levels within the body, and have anti-ageing effects.Beets are small herbaceous plants with broad dark-green leaves. Its underground taproot matures in 50-60 days of sowing and weighs about 100 to 150 g. If not harvested at the right time, it keeps growing in size to more than a pound and may develop surface cracks, lose taste and become unappetizing because of excess fibber content.

Scientific / Binomial name : Beta vulgaris

Popularly Known as :Beets, Yerra dumpa,

Usage :

• The root may be eaten raw in salads with carrot, radish, cucumber, cabbage etc.
• Steam the small cubes and serve warm with butter as a delicacy.
• Pickled beets are a part of the traditional food in the southern American states.
• Beet juice is a popular health drink.
• In India, the roots are eaten boiled in curries with other vegetables such as carrot, potato, tomato, etc.
• In Europe,cooked chunks are enjoyed as side dish with added olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice.
• In Eastern Europe, its soup, borscht prepared with added sour cream, is a popular recipe.

Vegetable - Onions

Onions

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About the Vegetable :Onion also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is used as a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. This genus also contains several other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food.The onion plant has a fan of hollow, bluish-green leaves and the bulb at the base of the plant begins to swell when a certain day-length is reached. In the autumn the foliage dies down and the outer layers of the bulb become dry and brittle. The crop is harvested and dried and the onions are ready for use or storage. The crop is prone to attack by a number of pests and diseases, particularly the onion fly, the onion eelworm and various fungi that cause rotting. Some Show varieties of A. cepa such as shallots and potato onions produce multiple bulbs.The onion plant grows about 2 feet tall and bears an underground globular stem, which consists of modified leaves arranged in whorls. There are many cultivar onions grown around the world. The average crop takes about three to four months time. Top greens or scallions and flower heads are also eaten all around the world.

Scientific / Binomial name :Allium cepa

Popularly Known as :Bulb onion ,Common onion, Kaanda, Pyaaz , Pyaaj, Eerulli, Vengayam, Vullipaya, Yerra Gadda, Vulligadda

Usage :

• They are used either chopped or sliced, in almost every type of food, including fresh salads, or as a spicy garnish.
• In India and Pakistan, onions are one of the most sought-after ingredients in cooking where they used in curries, stir-fries, soups, stuffing, pastes, sauces, etc., everyday.
• They are one of the common ingredients in the Chinese "chowmein" (a kind of recipe with chopped onions, scallions, cabbage, sweet bell peppers, chili and tomato sauce mixture.
• They are used extensively in Mediterranean and continental cooking in salads, cheese pizza, burger, soup, tart, rolls, stuffing...etc.

Vegetable - Cucumber

Cucumber

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About the Vegetable :Cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae. As in other squash members, cucumbers too are best-harvested young, tender and just short of reaching maturity; at the stage when they taste sweet, have crunchy texture, and unique flavor. If left uninterrupted, the fruit continues to grow in size, its skin becomes tougher and turns yellow, and seeds become hard and inedible. Fresh cucumbers are available throughout the season and can be eaten raw, in vegetable salads or juicing.It is a creeping vine that bears cylindrical fruits that are used as culinary vegetables. There are three main varieties of cucumber: slicing, pickling, and burpless. The cucumber is a creeping vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils. The plant has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruit. The fruit of the cucumber is roughly cylindrical. Cucumbers are usually more than 90% water.

Scientific / Binomial name : Cucumis sativus

Popularly Known as :Keera, Dosakaya, Chothekayi.

Usage :

• Mostly used in Salads. In India,it is used for even for making pickles.
• Every where it is used as a Salad Vegetable.

Vegetable - Cauliflower

Cauliflower

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About the Vegetable :Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed. The cauliflower head is composed of a white inflorescence meristem. Cauliflower heads resemble those in broccoli, which differs in having flower buds.Coming to the varieties, there are hundreds of historic and current commercial varieties used around the world.White cauliflower is the most common color of cauliflower.

Scientific / Binomial name : Brassica oleracea botrytus (group)

Popularly Known as :Cauliflower,Gobi, Gobi Puvvu,Phool Gobi.

Usage :

• Cauliflower can be roasted, boiled, fried, steamed, or eaten raw. When cooking, the outer leaves and thick stalks are removed, leaving only the florets. The leaves are also edible, but are most often discarded.[14] The florets should be broken into similar-sized pieces so they are cooked evenly. After eight minutes of steaming, or five minutes of boiling, the florets should be soft, but not mushy (depending on size). Stirring while cooking can break the florets into smaller, uneven pieces.

Culinary Used Areas :Almost Every where.