Category Archives: ID That Veggie

Turnip greens are edible. They have a strong flavor and are often sautéed with onions and garlic and cooked with bacon (or the fake vegetarian bacon). Or you can just cook them with olive oil and garlic: the universal combination. Hakurei Turnips are a small, white, gourmet variety of turnips, popular in Japan. These whiteContinue reading “Hakurei Turnips”

Looks like a green cherry tomato in a paper husk. Also called a Mexican green tomato, Mexican husk tomato, Tomate Verde. You peel the parchment cover off and wash the little tomato well. Tomatillos are most often cooked in salsa. They have a lemony flavor. If you eat them raw, they are more sharply acidic.Continue reading “Tomatillos”

Thai basil has a bit more assertive mint or licorice flavor than the standard basil you’re used to eating. Give it a try in a curry, add it to a light soup to give it a zip, give your tomato mozzerella salad a little oomph, or sauté it with beef, chicken, shrimp, or tofu toContinue reading “Thai Basil”

Tat soi is another Brassica—this time an Asian cooking green. It tastes like a milder mustard green, but it’s texture is similar to bok choi. It can be eaten raw in salads, in soup, sautéed, boiled or steamed. Tat soi is high in vitamins and minerals, including folate.

Tarragon, a perennial herb, is one of four fines herbes of French cooking, but don’t let that intimidate you. You’ll notice the aroma of anise wafting from the leaves. The flavor pairs very nicely with fish, chicken, eggs, and red wine sauce. It also makes a lovely salad dressing.

Swiss chard is in the spinach family, but it grows all summer (spinach can’t take the heat). That’s the bunch of large, dark green leaves with a long stem. The crunchy stem is delicious, so don’t throw any part of the chard away. The red and yellow stems are rainbow chard, and the one withContinue reading “Swiss Chard”

Sweet Potatoes Greens: You didn’t know you could eat these, did you? These are exactly what they sound like—the tops of the sweet potato plant—and a common green served in many Asian and African cultures. They’re high in antioxidants and in vitamins A, C and B2. Sauté them, steam them, boil them, put them inContinue reading “Sweet Potato Greens”

Sweet Potatoes are large, starchy, sweet tasting, tuberous root vegetables that are actually only distantly related to the potato family. They are in the Convolvulaceae family, whose other member, the morning glory, we fight in the fields as a very successful weed. They are high in complex carbohydrates, vitamins A, C and B6, manganese, dietaryContinue reading “Sweet Potatoes”