Vegetable

A vegetable is an edible plant or plant part used primarily in savory cooking. Textures range from the crisp snap of green beans to starchy roots, with flavors spanning sweet, earthy, and mild bitterness; common techniques include roasting, stir frying, steaming, grilling, and eating raw in salads, and vegetables are sold fresh, frozen, canned, or pre-cut.

Vegetables have been domesticated and traded worldwide for millennia, with major centers of origin across Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas; they anchor countless regional cuisines. Modern production blends open-field farming with greenhouse cultivation and long-term storage and distribution networks.