Vegetable Names in English: 100 Names With Pictures

Vegetable names are easier to learn when you connect each name with its appearance, texture, and the part of the plant people eat. Some vegetables are leaves, roots, bulbs, stems, flowers, tubers, pods, or seeds, while several familiar kitchen vegetables are botanically fruits.

This guide covers 100 vegetable names in English with pictures and simple recognition details. It also explains common vegetable groups and alternate English names without counting the same vegetable twice.

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Vegetable Names You See in Markets and Kitchens

Start with these familiar vegetables because they appear regularly in grocery stores, markets, restaurants, and home cooking.

Potato

Potato is a round or oval tuber with brown, yellow, red, or purple skin and pale, starchy flesh. People commonly boil, roast, bake, fry, or mash it.

Tomato

Tomato has juicy flesh, soft seeds, and skin that may be red, yellow, orange, green, or purple. Botanically it is a fruit, but cooks usually treat it as a vegetable.

Onion

Onion is a layered bulb with white, yellow, red, or purple skin. Its flavor ranges from sharp and pungent to mild and slightly sweet.

Carrot

Carrot is a long, crisp root vegetable best known for its bright-orange color. Purple, yellow, red, and white carrots also exist.

Cabbage

Cabbage forms a dense head of tightly packed leaves. Green, red, and savoy cabbages are common varieties.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower has a compact flower head surrounded by thick green leaves. White is the most familiar color, although orange, purple, and green varieties also occur.

Broccoli

Broccoli has a thick green stalk topped with clusters of tightly packed flower buds. Both the stalk and florets are edible.

Spinach

Spinach is a soft leafy vegetable with smooth or slightly crinkled green leaves. People eat it raw when young or cook it in many savory dishes.

Cucumber

Cucumber is long and usually green, with crisp watery flesh and soft seeds. Botanically it is a fruit, although people commonly use it as a vegetable.

Eggplant

Eggplant usually has glossy purple skin and soft pale flesh. It is also called aubergine or brinjal, while some varieties are white, green, striped, round, or elongated.

Bell Pepper

Bell pepper has crisp, hollow flesh with pale seeds inside. Green, red, yellow, and orange are the most familiar colors, while capsicum and sweet pepper are common alternate names.

Green Peas

Green peas are small round seeds found inside green pods. Fresh peas have a tender texture and mildly sweet flavor.

Green Beans

Green beans are long, narrow edible pods harvested while still tender. They are also known as snap beans, and some varieties are called string beans.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin is a firm-skinned squash that may be orange, yellow, green, or mixed in color. Its dense flesh usually has a mild to sweet flavor.

Zucchini

Zucchini is a tender summer squash with smooth green or yellow skin. British English commonly uses the name courgette.

Radish

Radish is a crisp root vegetable with a peppery flavor. Red radishes are common, but white, purple, black, and elongated varieties also exist.

Turnip

Turnip is a round root vegetable with white flesh and skin that often shows purple or green coloring near the top.

Beetroot

Beetroot is a round root best known for deep red-purple flesh. American English often shortens the name to beet.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato is an elongated storage root with brown, red, purple, or pale skin. Its flesh may be orange, white, yellow, or purple.

Okra

Okra produces narrow green pods with ridged sides and round seeds inside. It is also called lady’s finger in many regions.

Lettuce

Lettuce is grown for its tender leaves and may form loose bunches or compact heads. Romaine, iceberg, butterhead, and loose-leaf lettuce are common types.

Garlic

Garlic forms a bulb made of individual cloves enclosed in thin papery skin. Its flavor is strong when raw and becomes milder when cooked.

Celery

Celery has long, crisp, pale-green stalks with leafy tops. Its flavor is fresh and slightly bitter.

Asparagus

Asparagus produces long green, purple, or white spears with pointed tips. People harvest the young shoots before they develop into mature stems.

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi has a round swollen stem that grows above the soil, with leafy stalks extending from its sides. Its pale flesh is crisp and mildly cabbage-like.

Main Types of Vegetables

Vegetables can be grouped by the plant part people commonly eat.

• Leafy vegetables: spinach, kale, lettuce, bok choy
• Root vegetables: carrot, radish, beetroot, parsnip
• Tubers and storage roots: potato, yam, sweet potato
• Bulbs: onion, garlic, shallot
• Stems and shoots: celery, asparagus, bamboo shoots
• Flower vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke
• Culinary fruit vegetables: tomato, cucumber, eggplant, peppers
• Gourds and squashes: pumpkin, zucchini, bottle gourd
• Pods and seeds: peas, beans, edamame

In everyday cooking, vegetable is a broader term than it is in botany. Tomato, cucumber, eggplant, peppers, pumpkin, zucchini, and okra all develop from flowers and contain seeds, so botanists classify them as fruits. In kitchens, however, people usually treat them as vegetables.

Leafy Vegetable Names

Leafy vegetables are grown mainly for their edible leaves.

• Kale — Thick green or purple leaves with curly or flat edges and a stronger flavor than most lettuce.
• Swiss Chard — Large green leaves with thick stalks that may be white, red, yellow, or orange.
• Collard Greens — Broad, smooth, dark-green leaves with a sturdy texture.
• Mustard Greens — Flat or crinkled leaves with a noticeable peppery taste.
• Bok Choy — Broad green leaves attached to crisp white or pale-green stalks.
• Napa Cabbage — An elongated head of pale-green crinkled leaves with thick white ribs.
• Arugula — Narrow lobed leaves with a peppery flavor; also called rocket.
• Watercress — Small rounded leaves with a fresh, sharp taste.
• Endive — Curly or elongated leaves with a mildly bitter flavor.
• Radicchio — Compact heads of red-purple leaves marked by white veins.
• Escarole — Broad green leaves with a milder flavor than many other endives.
• Sorrel — Tender green leaves with a naturally sour, lemon-like taste.
• Amaranth Leaves — Green, red, or purple leaves widely cooked as leafy greens.
• Malabar Spinach — Thick, glossy leaves from a climbing vine that become slightly slippery when cooked.
• Mizuna — Narrow, deeply cut Japanese greens with a mild peppery taste.
• Water Spinach — Long hollow stems with narrow green leaves, widely used in Asian cooking.
• Turnip Greens — Edible leafy tops of the turnip plant with a slightly peppery flavor.
• Taro Leaves — Large heart-shaped leaves from the taro plant that require proper cooking before eating.

Root, Tuber, Bulb, and Underground Stem Vegetables

These vegetables develop edible structures mainly below the soil.

• Parsnip — A cream-colored root similar to a carrot, with a sweet, slightly nutty taste.
• Daikon — A long white radish with crisp flesh and a relatively mild flavor.
• Celeriac — A rough, knobby underground vegetable with pale flesh and a celery-like aroma.
• Rutabaga — A large round root with yellow flesh and purple-yellow skin; also called swede.
• Jicama — A brown-skinned root with crisp, juicy white flesh and a mildly sweet taste.
• Cassava — A long brown storage root with firm white flesh, widely used as a starchy food.
• Yam — A starchy tuber that may have rough brown skin with white, yellow, or purple flesh.
• Taro — A brown corm with pale flesh that may contain purple or grayish speckles.
• Jerusalem Artichoke — A knobby tuber with crisp pale flesh and a mildly nutty flavor.
• Shallot — A small onion-related bulb with copper, red, or golden skin.
• Leek — Long white and pale-green layered stalks with a mild onion-like taste.
• Fennel Bulb — A swollen pale base with green stalks and a mild anise-like flavor.
• Lotus Root — An underwater stem with a distinctive wheel-like pattern of holes when sliced.
• Horseradish — A pale root with an extremely sharp aroma and spicy flavor.
• Ginger — An aromatic underground rhizome with light-brown skin and yellow flesh.

Stem, Shoot, and Flower Vegetable Names

These vegetables come mainly from edible stems, shoots, flower buds, or flower structures.

• Artichoke — A large green flower bud with overlapping pointed bracts and a tender inner heart.
• Bamboo Shoots — Pale, cone-shaped young bamboo stems harvested before they become hard.
• Fiddlehead Ferns — Tightly curled young fern shoots with a spiral shape.
• Cardoon — Thick pale stalks similar in appearance to celery and related to artichoke.
• Broccoli Rabe — Thin stems, leafy greens, and small broccoli-like buds with a bitter taste.
• Romanesco — A lime-green flower head made of pointed spiral florets arranged in geometric patterns.
• Brussels Sprouts — Small round green buds resembling miniature cabbages that grow along a thick stalk.
• Green Onion — A narrow white base with long hollow green leaves and a mild onion flavor; also called scallion.

Vegetable Fruits, Gourds, Squashes, and Peppers

Many foods in this group are botanical fruits but function as vegetables in cooking.

Gourds and Squashes

• Chayote — A pale-green, pear-shaped squash with firm mild flesh and one soft seed.
• Bottle Gourd — A smooth pale-green gourd that may grow long, round, or bottle-shaped.
• Bitter Gourd — A deeply ridged green gourd with an intensely bitter flavor.
• Ridge Gourd — A long green gourd with pronounced lengthwise ridges.
• Sponge Gourd — An elongated green gourd eaten while young and tender.
• Ash Gourd — A large green gourd that often develops a pale waxy coating when mature.
• Snake Gourd — A very long, narrow gourd that often curves or twists as it grows.
• Butternut Squash — Tan skin, a narrow neck, rounded base, and dense orange flesh.
• Acorn Squash — A small, deeply ribbed squash with dark-green skin and orange-yellow flesh.
• Spaghetti Squash — A yellow squash whose cooked flesh separates into thin spaghetti-like strands.
• Pattypan Squash — A small flat summer squash with scalloped edges.
• Delicata Squash — Cream-colored skin with green or orange stripes and sweet yellow flesh.
• Yellow Squash — A tender summer squash with bright-yellow skin and pale flesh.
• Pointed Gourd — A small elongated green gourd with pale stripes and firm flesh.

Peppers and Other Culinary Fruits

• Cherry Tomato — A small round or oval tomato with juicy flesh and a generally sweet flavor.
• Tomatillo — A small green or purple fruit surrounded by a papery husk and known for its tart taste.
• Poblano Pepper — A broad dark-green chili with mild to moderate heat.
• Jalapeño Pepper — A short smooth chili that starts green and turns red as it ripens.
• Serrano Pepper — A narrow green chili that is generally hotter than jalapeño.
• Banana Pepper — A long curved pepper that commonly ripens from pale yellow to orange or red.
• Green Chili — A general culinary name for immature green chili peppers used fresh in many cuisines.

Beans, Peas, and Pod Vegetable Names

Many legumes are eaten while fresh or immature and function as vegetables.

• Snow Peas — Flat edible pods containing very small peas.
• Sugar Snap Peas — Thick, crisp edible pods filled with round sweet peas.
• Edamame — Immature soybeans harvested while green and commonly cooked in their pods.
• Broad Beans — Large flat seeds inside thick green pods; also called fava beans.
• Runner Beans — Long green pods that people eat while young and tender.
• Yardlong Beans — Very long, slender pods that can grow 30 centimeters or more.
• Wax Beans — Bean pods similar to green beans but pale yellow in color.
• Lima Beans — Broad flat seeds that may be pale green, white, or cream.

Other Useful Vegetable Names

A few useful food names do not fit neatly into only one plant-part category.

• Sweet Corn — Tender yellow, white, or mixed kernels arranged in rows around a cob.
• Mushroom — A fungus rather than a plant, but commonly grouped with vegetables in cooking.
• Nopales — Young, flat green pads from prickly pear cactus, prepared after removing the spines.
• Hearts of Palm — Pale, tender inner sections taken from certain palm stems.
• Drumstick Pods — Long narrow green moringa pods commonly cooked in soups, curries, and stews.

100 Vegetable Names at a Glance

The complete list below contains 100 distinct names. Alternate regional names are not counted separately.

Vegetable Names With Different English Names

Several vegetable names change by region. These are alternate names, not separate vegetables.

• Eggplant → Aubergine / Brinjal
• Bell Pepper → Capsicum / Sweet Pepper
• Zucchini → Courgette
• Beetroot → Beet
• Okra → Lady’s Finger
• Arugula → Rocket
• Rutabaga → Swede
• Green Onion → Scallion; sometimes Spring Onion
• Napa Cabbage → Often called Chinese Cabbage

Knowing these differences is especially useful when reading recipes from different English-speaking regions.

Which Vegetables Are Botanically Fruits?

Some everyday vegetables are fruits in botanical terms because they develop from flowers and contain seeds.

Common examples include:

• tomato;
• cucumber;
• eggplant;
• bell pepper;
• pumpkin;
• zucchini;
• okra;
• chili peppers;
• gourds;
• squashes.

Their botanical classification does not change their everyday culinary use. In cooking and grocery shopping, people normally group them with vegetables.

Are Mushrooms Vegetables?

Mushrooms are not botanical vegetables because they belong to the fungi kingdom rather than the plant kingdom.

However, cooks and grocery stores commonly group mushrooms with vegetables because people prepare them in similar savory dishes. For vocabulary purposes, mushroom is therefore useful to include as long as the distinction remains clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read More

• Summer Vegetables Name
• Winter Vegetables Name
• Green Vegetables Names
• Leafy Vegetables Names
• Flower Vegetables Names
• Long Vegetables Names