Vegetables in English: vocabulary about greens and produce

Who hasn’t heard that vegetables are good for your health? Certainly, they’re very important in our dishes and contain many nutrients. And now we get to the most important question: What are they called?

Subcategories of “Vegetables”?

Before we begin to go over the names of all the vegetables, it’s important that we start by establishing if there are different categories of vegetables.

There are no subcategories of vegetables in English, though there are in some other languages. Vegetables refers to any plant with edible fruits, seeds, roots, bulbs, tubers, leaves, or flowers. For example: tomatoes, potatoes, onions, asparagus, spinach and cauliflower.

It’s important to remember that what we may think of as vegetables are technically classified in other ways. For example, tomatoes, avocados and squash are botanically classified as fruits. 

Now that we know that there are no subcategories of vegetables in English, we’ll go on to the vocabulary.

Green Vegetables in English

To facilitate learning, we’re going to start with vegetables that are mostly green. These vegetables are sometimes called greens. Let’s see what’s included in the first list.

Basil

Artichoke

Coriander (UK) / Cilantro (US)

Brussel Sprout

Dill

Asparagus

Lettuce

Oregano

Parsley

Leek

Cabbage

Rosemary

Other Vegetables

In the last section, we gave you a list of green vegetables. Now, to help you learn, we’re going to give you a list with other types of vegetables, a little bit more colourful. Which of these is your favourite?

Garlic

Celery

Sweet Potato

Aubergine (UK) / Eggplant (US)

Broccoli

Courgette (UK) / Zucchini (US)

Pumpkin

Onion

Mushrooms

Cauliflower

Corn

Potato

Red Pepper

Green Pepper

Radish

Beetroot

Tomato

Carrot

The Vegetables that aren’t Vegetables 

Vegetables that aren’t vegetables? Maybe you think we’ve gone crazy. However, in common parlance, there are certain products that we think are vegetables, but that actually aren’t. It’s very simple: in botanical classification, these foods have been classified as fruits. 

Surely this isn’t new for you. Do you have some of these fruits in mind? 

Now then, some of the fruits you’ll find on this list we’ve already covered in other sections of this article. However, it’s worth knowing for sure some of the items in this category. 

Olive

Avocado

Aubergine (UK) / Eggplant (US)

Courgette (UK) / Zucchini (US)

Pumpkin

Chayote Fruit

Bean

Chickpea

Pea

Green Beans

Corn

Okra

Cucumber

Sweet Pepper

Tomato

Legumes

Very well, legumes aren’t vegetables, strictly speaking, but it’s important to be familiar with them, since they also show up on our plates.

Bean

Chickpea

Peas

Broad Bean

Green Peas

Lentil

Soybeans

If you want to learn all the terms for vegetables, it’s probably not just because you love language and vocabulary. Maybe you love cooking, or have been invited to a large dinner and want to help prepare it. 

So besides the lists of vocabulary we’ve included in this article, we’ve decided to include some phrases that can help you when you’re preparing food or helping in the kitchen. What better way to practice vocabulary than in the real world!

• This recipe is very popular in my country.
• We need to wash the lettuce before preparing the salad.
• First, you have to boil the water and then, add the broccoli.
• Do you want me to add some parsley to it?
• Have you tried grilled courgette?
• Steam the vegetables.
• Chop the onion and garlic.
• Can you peel the potatoes?
• Are you ready to prepare some tasty veggies? We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and that now you know the correct terms for all the vegetables.

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