🥕 VEGETABLES: ROOTS, LEAVES, AND STEMS WE EAT
PAGE 1 OF 5, WHAT IS A VEGETABLE?
KITCHEN VS SCIENCE
ONE WORD, MANY PLANT PARTS
In the kitchen, a vegetable is any savoury plant food that is not sweet fruit. In botany, the word covers many different body parts. A carrot is a root that stores sugar underground. Celery is a crunchy stem that holds the plant up. Spinach is a leaf packed with iron and folate. Cauliflower is a tight cluster of flower buds. Peas are seeds inside a pod. Learning which part you eat helps you understand how plants grow and why they taste different.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Broccoli and cauliflower are the same species, Brassica oleracea. Farmers bred one for green flower heads and one for white.
CRUNCH!
UNDERGROUND
🥔 Potatoes and carrots store energy in swollen roots or tubers below the soil.
🧅 Onions are bulb stems that hoard water and sugar for dry seasons.
🧅 Onions are bulb stems that hoard water and sugar for dry seasons.
ABOVE GROUND
🥬 Lettuce and kale are leaves that catch sunlight and make sugar for the plant.
🌽 Corn kernels are seeds, but we often group corn with vegetables at dinner.
🌽 Corn kernels are seeds, but we often group corn with vegetables at dinner.