Vegetable - Fenugreek Leaves

Fenugreek Leaves

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About the Vegetable :Fenugreek is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiarid crop, and its seeds are a common ingredient in dishes from the Indian Subcontinent.Fenugreek is used as an herb (dried or fresh leaves), spice (seeds), and vegetable (fresh leaves, sprouts, and microgreens). Sotolon is the chemical responsible for fenugreek's distinctive sweet smell.Fresh fenugreek leaves are an ingredient in some Indian curries. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are used in salads. When harvested as microgreens, fenugreek is known as samudra methi in Maharashtra, especially in and around Mumbai, where it is often grown near the sea in the sandy tracts, hence the name samudra, "ocean" in Sanskrit.Samudra methi is also grown in dry river beds in the Gangetic plains. When sold as a vegetable in India, the young plants are harvested with their roots still attached and sold in small bundles in the markets and bazaars. Any remaining soil is washed off to extend their shelf life.

Scientific / Binomial name : Trigonella foenum-graecum

Popularly Known as :Methi saag, Methi patta, Menthi Aaku

Usage :

• In South India, Fenu greek leaves are used for making tasty flavoured curries and is added to brinjal, meat, fish etc..
• In Turkish cuisine, fenugreek is used for making a paste known as çemen. Cumin, black pepper, and other spices are added into it, especially to make pastırma.
• In Persian cuisine, fenugreek leaves are called shanbalile. They are the key ingredient and one of several greens incorporated into ghormeh sabzi and eshkeneh, often said to be the Iranian national dishes.
• In Egyptian cuisine, peasants in Upper Egypt add fenugreek seeds and maize to their pita bread to produce aish merahrah, a staple of their diet.
• Fenugreek is used in Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine.[9] The word for fenugreek in Amharic is abesh (or abish), and the seed is used in Ethiopia as a natural herbal medicine in the treatment of diabetes.

Vegetable - French Beans

French Beans

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About the Vegetable :Green beans are found in two major groups, bush beans and pole beans.Bush beans are short plants, growing to approximately two feet in height, without requiring supports. They generally reach maturity and produce all of their fruit in a relatively short period of time, then cease to produce. Gardeners may grow more than one crop of bush beans in a season.Pole beans have a climbing habit and produce a twisting vine. Runner beans have a similar habit but are a different species of bean.

Scientific / Binomial name : Phaseolus vulgaris

Popularly Known as :French Beans, Broad beans, Bakla, Green Beans, String beans, Snap beans,Fine beans,French green beans, French filet beanswn as :

Usage :They are marketed canned, frozen, and fresh. Green beans are often steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or baked in casseroles. A dish with green beans popular throughout the United States, particularly at Thanksgiving, is green bean casserole, which consists of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and French fried onions.

Vegetable - Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato

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About the Vegetable :Sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae.. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Ipomoea batatas is native to the tropical regions in America ,approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of Convolvulaceae. Batatas is the only crop plant of major importance—some others are used locally, but many are poisonous. The sweet potato is also available in many Varieties in the market ,is only distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum) and does not belong to the nightshade family.The edible tuberous root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin whose color ranges between yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, and beige. Its flesh ranges from beige through white, red, pink, violet, yellow, orange, and purple. Sweet potato varieties with wh.ite or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red, pink or orange flesh

Scientific / Binomial name : Ipomoea batatas

Popularly Known as :Ganjira gadda, Yam, Suran

Usage :

• Fresh sweet potatoes can be eaten raw.
• Baking in water with a pinch of salt would give rich taste to them. Peel the skin before eating.
• Camote, sweet potato known as in the Latin world, is used extensively in the Mexican cuisine.
• Camote cue, where in the tuber deep-fried and caramelized with brown sugar, is a popular street food in the Philippines.
• It sweet flesh used in soups, curries, stews, and in confectionery to make cakes, pie...etc.
• The tuber also used to prepare different kinds of baby foods.
• Sweet potato chips are enjoyed as favourite snacks.

Vegetable - Bitter Gourd

Bitter gourd

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About the Vegetable :Bitter gourd is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit, which is extremely bitter. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.



Scientific / Binomial name : Momordica charantia

Popularly Known as :Bitter melon, Bitter gourd or Bitter squash, Goya, Karela

Usage :

• Bitter melon is generally consumed cooked in the green or early yellowing stage. The young shoots and leaves of the bitter melon may also be eaten as greens.

• It is very popular throughout South Asia. In North Indian cuisine, it is often served with yogurt on the side to offset the bitterness, used in sabzi or stuffed with spices and then cooked in oil

Vegetable - Cabbage

Cabbage

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About the Vegetable :Cabbage structurally consists of clusters of stiff leaves superimposed one over the other in compact layers, allowing it a round or globular shape. Several varieties are cultivated worldwide including green, purple, red, and savoy.Rich in phyto-nutrient anti-oxidants, this cool season leafy vegetable belongs to the "Brassica" family, a broad family of common vegetables that also include brussels sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy, kale, and broccoli. It is one of the widely cultivated crops around the world.

Scientific / Binomial name : Brassica oleracea Capitata ( group )

Popularly Known as :Brassica oleracea ,oleracea , capitata, tuba, sabauda, acephala, Cabbage , Gobi Puvvu, Cabbaji.

Usage :

• Cabbages are prepared in many different ways for eating. They can be pickled, fermented for dishes such as sauerkraut, steamed, stewed, sautéed, braised, or eaten raw. Cabbage is a good source of vitamin K, vitamin C and dietary fibre. Contaminated cabbage has been linked to cases of food-borne illness in humans.Savoy cabbages are usually used in salads, while smooth-leaf types are utilized for both market sales and processing.
• In India and Ethiopia, cabbage is often included in spicy salads and braises. In the United States, cabbage is used primarily for the production of coleslaw, followed by market use and sauerkraut production

Vegetable - Pumpkin

Pumpkin

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About the Vegetable :A pumpkin is a cultivator of the squash plant. It is one of the widely grown vegetables that is incredibly rich in vital antioxidants, and vitamins. While this humble backyard vegetable is less in calories but contains vitamin A, and flavonoid poly-phenolic antioxidants such as leutin, xanthin, and carotenes in abundance.The plant is a fast-growing vine that creeps along the ground surface in a similar fashion like that of other Cucurbitaceae family vegetables and fruits such as cucumber, squash, cantaloupes...etc. It is one of the most popular field crops cultivated around the world, including the USA at the commercial scale for its fruit, and seeds.Pumpkins vary greatly in shape, size and colors. Giant pumpkins generally weigh 4–6 kg with the largest capable of reaching a weight of over 25 kg. Golden-nugget pumpkins are flat, smaller in size and feature sweet creamy orange color flesh.

Scientific / Binomial name : Cucurbita pepo

Popularly Known as :Gummdikaya,Gummadi

Usage :Almost all the parts of the pumpkin plant i.e, fruit, leaves, flowers and seeds are edible.

• Pumpkin can be used in variety of delicious recipes either baked, stew- fried; however, it is eaten best after steam-cooking in order to get maximum nutrients. In China, young tender, pumpkin leaves are consumed as cooked greens or in soups.
• In the Indian subcontinent where it is popular as "kaddu or sitaphal", it is used in the preparation of "sabzee", sweet dishes (halwa), desserts, soups, curries,...etc.
• The fruit is used in the preparations of pies, pancakes, custard, ravioli...etc.
• Golden nugget pumpkins are used to make wonderful soufflés, stuffing, soups...etc.
• Roasted Pumpkin seeds (Pepita) can be eaten as snacks.

Culinary Used Areas :Pumpkins are grown all around the world for a variety of reasons ranging from agricultural purposes (such as animal feed) to commercial and ornamental sales.

Vegetable - Tomato

Tomato

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About the Vegetable :Tomato, a pulpy nutritious fruit commonly eaten as a vegetable, is another wonderful gift of the Mayans. This humble vegetable of Central America has seized the attention of millions of health seekers for its incredible phyto-chemical properties. Interestingly, it has more health-benefiting compounds than that of an apple!There are around 7,500 tomato varieties grown for various purposes. Heirloom tomatoes are becoming increasingly popular, particularly among home gardeners and organic producers, since they tend to produce more interesting and flavourful crops at the cost of disease resistance and productivity.The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a variety in the mid 20th century that ripened uniformly. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavourful.

Scientific / Binomial name : Solanum lycopersicum

Popularly Known as :Tamota, Tameta hannu, Tamatar

Usage :The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as under U.S. customs regulations.

• In South India, Tomatoes are regularly used in making curries and is a regular additive, while making curries. Moreover ,Tomatoes are used for making Ketchup,Pickles and many sausage items for external adding.
• They are used extensively in cooking especially in Mediterranean, Greek, Italian, South-east Asian, and East European cuisine.
• Raw ones have extra acidic taste, but when mixed with other ingredients while cooking gives wonderful flavour and rich taste.
• Regular as well as cherry tomatoes are one of the popular items in salad preparations.
• Fresh tomato juices as well as its soups are increasingly becoming popular health-drinks all across the world. Organic varieties hold three times more lycopene than non-organic.
• Unripe, green tomatoes are used in many similar ways like other raw vegetables to prepare in curries, stews and to make "chutney" in some of the Indian subcontinent states.

Vegetable - Brinjal or Egg Plant

Brinjal or Egg Plant

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About the Vegetable :Eggplant or Brinjal, is a very low calorie vegetable and has healthy nutrition profile; good news for weight watchers! The veggie is popularly known as aubergine in the western world.Several varieties of aubergines are grown all around the world. Depending on the cultivar type, they vary greatly in size, shape, and color. Generally, aubergines fall into two broad categories, either oval shaped, or thin and elongated.The plant reaches about 3-4 feet tall in quick time and bears many bright fruits. Each fruit has smooth, glossy skin. Internally, it features off-white color pulp with numerous centrally arranged small, soft seeds. Fruits are generally harvested when they reach maturity but just short of full stage ripeness.

Scientific / Binomial name : Solanum melongena

Popularly Known as :Egg Plant, Vankaya,Badinekai, Baingan, Aubergine,Melongene, Garden egg, or Guinea squash.

Usage : Egg plants can also be battered before deep-frying and served with a sauce made of tahini and tamarind. In Iranian cuisine, it is blended with whey as kashk e-bademjan, tomatoes as mirza ghasemi or made into stew as khoresh-e-bademjan. It can be sliced and deep-fried, then served with plain yogurt, (optionally) topped with a tomato and garlic sauce.It may also be roasted in its skin until charred, so the pulp can be removed and blended with other ingredients, such as lemon, tahini, and garlic

Culinary Used Areas :In Indian, South African, Malaysian, Singaporean, and West Indian English, the fruit is called brinjal, from the Portuguese .The Indic name baingan or baigan is also sometimes used in South Asian English.