1
Cactus
Opuntia ficus-indica
Edible cactus pads (nopales) and stems from prickly pear and related species — a staple of Mexican cooking, eaten grilled, scrambled with eggs, or in salads.
Looking for 6-letter vegetables? Here are 22 vegetables that fit — each linked to a full profile.
Letters are counted across the whole name with spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, and diacritics excluded. "Apple Pie" is 8 letters; "Boeuf Bourguignon" is 16.
List of 6-letter Vegetables
2
Carrot
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
A crunchy orange root vegetable rich in beta-carotene, descended from wild purple ancestors and now grown on every continent except Antarctica.
3
Celery
Apium graveolens
A pale-green, fibrous, intensely aromatic stalk used as both vegetable and aromatic base — a key member of French *mirepoix* and the *holy trinity* of Cajun cooking.
4
Chives
Allium schoenoprasum
Slim hollow grass-like onion relatives — the mildest member of the *Allium* family, used as fresh herb garnish for soups, eggs, baked potatoes, and countless other dishes.
5
Daikon
Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus
A long white winter radish, mildly peppery and crisp, central to East and South Asian cooking — eaten raw, pickled, simmered, and grated as a digestive aid.
6
Endive
Cichorium endivia (curly endive / escarole); Cichorium intybus var. foliosum (Belgian endive)
A chicory-family vegetable with crisp, pale, tightly packed leaves and a pleasant bitterness — Belgian endive is grown in darkness to blanch it white; curly endive (frisée) is the salad green with frilled, pale yellow-green leaves.
7
Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare
A bulb-and-frond vegetable with a delicate anise flavor — eaten raw in salads, roasted whole, or braised with citrus, and producing seeds used as a fragrant spice.
8
Garlic
Allium sativum
A pungent bulbous member of the allium family, used worldwide for its sharp aromatic warmth, and one of humanity's oldest cultivated medicinal foods.
9
Ginger
Zingiber officinale
A pungent, peppery rhizome from a tropical Asian plant — used fresh, dried, candied, or pickled in nearly every cuisine, with strong digestive and anti-nausea uses in folk and modern medicine.
10
Jicama
Pachyrhizus erosus
A round, brown-skinned tuber with crisp, juicy white flesh, mildly sweet and starchy — eaten raw with chili-lime or chopped into salads, a Mexican market staple.
11
Lentil
Lens culinaris
One of humanity's oldest cultivated plants — small lens-shaped legume seeds that cook quickly without soaking, providing exceptional plant protein; the foundation of Indian dal, French lentilles du Puy, and Middle Eastern mujaddara.
12
Potato
Solanum tuberosum
A starchy underground tuber from the Andes that became one of the most important food crops on Earth — the world's fourth-largest staple after rice, wheat, and maize.
13
Quinoa
Chenopodium quinoa
A South American seed crop of an Andean plant related to spinach and beets — a complete protein eaten as a grain-substitute, sacred to the Incas, now globally popular.
14
Radish
Raphanus sativus
A small, crisp, peppery root vegetable in the brassica family, eaten raw with salt and butter, sliced into salads, or roasted to mellow its bite.
15
Rapini
Brassica rapa subsp. rapa
A bitter Italian leafy green with small broccoli-like florets (also called broccoli rabe) — a defining ingredient of southern Italian cuisine, Italian-American sausage sandwiches, and Mediterranean winter cooking.
16
Sorrel
Rumex acetosa (common sorrel); Rumex scutatus (French sorrel)
A sharp, lemony herb-leaf vegetable with one of the most intensely sour tastes in the vegetable garden — its oxalic acid content gives it a flavour like lemon juice with green leafy notes; used in French sorrel soup, as a sauce with fish, wilted with cream, or raw in salads where it cuts through richness.
17
Tatsoi
Brassica rapa var. rosularis
A small Asian green with dark spoon-shaped leaves arranged in a flat rosette — a cousin of bok choy, eaten in salads, stir-fries, and increasingly in Western salad mixes for its distinctive shape and mild mustard flavor.
18
Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
A sweet-tart nightshade berry, botanically a fruit, treated culinarily as a vegetable, and the foundation of cuisines from Italy to Mexico.
19
Turnip
Brassica rapa subsp. rapa
A peppery, white-and-purple root vegetable common in Northern European cooking — predating potatoes as a staple, with leaves (turnip greens) eaten as a separate vegetable across the American South.
20
Ulluco
Ullucus tuberosus
A small, brightly colored Andean tuber — pink, yellow, red, or speckled — eaten across Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador for its waxy, slightly mucilaginous flesh and earthy sweetness.
21
Wasabi
Eutrema japonicum (syn. Wasabia japonica)
Japan's fiery green condiment — not a chilli heat but a sharp, volatile, nasal-clearing pungency from isothiocyanates that hits instantly and dissipates quickly; true wasabi is the grated rhizome of a semi-aquatic Japanese plant; the green paste served in most Western sushi restaurants is imitation wasabi made from horseradish, mustard, and food colouring.
22
Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
A wild and cultivated medicinal herb — sometimes used as a salad green and bitter herb, more famously known for its 5,000-year history as a wound-healing plant and traditional flavoring agent in pre-hops beer.
About 6-letter vegetables
That's our current list of vegetables with exactly 6 letters. Need a different length? Try the browse-by-length pills in the sidebar, or combine with a starting letter — for example, 6-letter vegetables that start with A.