Vegetables that contain C — 51 detailed entries

Below are vegetables that contain the letter C anywhere in the name. Each of the 51 vegetables below opens to a full profile.

Table of contents 51 entries

List of Vegetables That Contain C

Artichoke

Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus

The unopened flower bud of a giant Mediterranean thistle, eaten by stripping leaves dipped in butter or vinaigrette and arriving at the prized tender heart.

Bok Choy

Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis

A Chinese cabbage with crisp white stems and dark green leaves — quick-cooking, mild, and a workhorse of stir-fries, dumpling fillings, and Chinese soups.

Broccoli

Brassica oleracea var. italica

A green flowering brassica with tightly clustered florets, descended from wild Mediterranean cabbage and prized for its fiber and vitamin C.

Cabbage

Brassica oleracea var. capitata

A leafy brassica forming dense round heads, eaten raw, fermented, or cooked across nearly every cuisine in the temperate world.

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.

A North American native bulb that was a major staple food for Plateau and Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples — slow-roasted in earth ovens to convert its complex carbohydrates into intensely sweet caramelized food.

Canna

Canna edulis (now Canna indica)

An edible canna lily — the same showy garden flower whose underground rhizomes were a major Andean food crop, still grown in South America and Asia for starch production.

Caper

Capparis spinosa

The unopened flower bud of the caper bush, pickled or salt-cured to develop its sharp, briny, faintly lemony flavor — an indispensable accent in Mediterranean cooking and classic sauces from piccata to tapenade.

Cardoon

Cynara cardunculus

A wild ancestor of the artichoke — its fleshy leaf stalks are eaten like celery, central to Italian and Spanish winter cuisine, while the artichoke we know is bred from the same species' flower buds.

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.

Cassava

Manihot esculenta

A starchy tropical tuber feeding hundreds of millions across Africa, South America, and Asia — calorie-dense and drought-tolerant, but requires careful processing to remove natural cyanide.

Catsear

Hypochaeris radicata

A common dandelion-lookalike weed often called "false dandelion" — its leaves are edible like dandelion (with a milder flavor) and its roots have been roasted as a coffee substitute in foraging traditions.

Cauliflower

Brassica oleracea var. botrytis

A pale, dense flower-bud cluster of the same species as broccoli, marketed in recent years as a low-carb stand-in for grains and starches.

Cavolo Nero

Brassica oleracea var. palmifolia

Black Tuscan kale — the darkest, most robustly flavoured of all kale varieties, with long, deeply crinkled, almost black-green leaves that become sweeter after the first frost; the essential leaf in ribollita and other Tuscan winter soups; more tender and less bitter than curly kale, it is now a staple of artisan cuisine worldwide.

Celeriac

Apium graveolens var. rapaceum

An ugly knobby celery root with creamy off-white flesh — a hidden European winter staple, eaten roasted, mashed, or grated raw into the French classic *céleri rémoulade*.

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.

Celtuce

Lactuca sativa var. asparagina

A Chinese variety of lettuce grown for its thick fleshy stem rather than its leaves — sliced into matchsticks or chunks for stir-fries, with a crispy mild flavor between celery and lettuce.

Chard

Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla

A leafy green relative of beets — eaten for its tender leaves and crunchy stems, with rainbow chard varieties bringing dramatic red, yellow, pink, and orange stem colors to plates.

Chaya

Cnidoscolus aconitifolius

A leafy green from Mexico's Yucatan — once a Mayan staple, with stinging hairs that disappear after 5 minutes of cooking and exceptional protein-and-iron levels making it an emerging "tree spinach" in tropical agriculture.

Chayote Squash

Sechium edule

A pale green Mexican squash with a single seed and crisp watery flesh — a staple across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asian diasporas, eaten in soups, stir-fries, and salads.

Chickpea

Cicer arietinum

The world's most widely eaten pulse — a round, beige legume cultivated for 10,000 years; the foundation of hummus, dal, chana masala, falafel, and dozens of dishes across the Middle East, Mediterranean, and South Asia.

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.

Cilantro

Coriandrum sativum

A polarizing fresh herb that's central to Mexican, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Middle Eastern cuisines — and tastes like soap to people with specific olfactory genetics.

Collard Greens

Brassica oleracea var. viridis

Large, flat, dark green brassica leaves with a mild-bitter flavour — slow-braised for hours in the American South with smoked pork until silky; also eaten across Africa, Brazil, and Portugal.

Cucumber

Cucumis sativus

A crisp, watery fruit (botanically) eaten as a vegetable — sliced fresh, pickled, or blended into cold soups, with cooling associations everywhere it grows.

Dabberlocks

Alaria esculenta

A long brown-olive Atlantic seaweed (also called winged kelp or badderlocks) — a traditional Scottish and Icelandic food eaten as a salad green, soup ingredient, or chewy snack.

Delicata Squash

Cucurbita pepo

A small, oblong, cream-and-green-striped winter squash with thin edible skin and rich sweet flesh — a 1990s revival of a forgotten 1894 American heirloom that's become a fall farmers'-market favorite.

Dolichos

Lablab purpureus

A purple-podded climbing bean (also called hyacinth bean or lablab) used across South Asian, African, and Caribbean cuisines — both fresh pods and dried beans, with edible flowers and ornamental status as a garden showpiece.

Drumstick

Moringa oleifera

The long pod of the moringa tree (also called moringa pods) — eaten across South Asian and African cuisines as a vegetable, while the leaves of the same tree are a renowned superfood.

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.

Iceberg Lettuce

Lactuca sativa var. capitata

A tightly headed crisphead lettuce with cool, watery, mild leaves — the wedge-salad workhorse, the burger-topping standard, and the most-shipped lettuce in the U.S.

Jerusalem Artichoke

Helianthus tuberosus

A knobby, nutty tuber unrelated to artichokes and not from Jerusalem — a North American sunflower relative producing crisp, sweet roots eaten roasted, raw, or in soup.

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.

Lettuce

Lactuca sativa

A crisp leafy green grown in dozens of varieties from delicate butterhead to crunchy iceberg, the foundation of cold salads everywhere.

Mâche

Valerianella locusta

The tenderest of salad leaves — small, velvety rosettes with a mild, nutty, slightly sweet flavour; a classic French winter salad green harvested when almost everything else in the garden has died back; sold as lamb's lettuce in Britain and corn salad in North America.

Radicchio

Cichorium intybus var. foliosum

A bitter Italian red-leafed chicory eaten in salads, grilled, or roasted — northern Italy's prized winter vegetable, with several distinctive regional varieties protected under European DOP designation.

Red Leaf Lettuce

Lactuca sativa var. crispa

A loose-leaf lettuce variety with deep red-purple leaf tips — used widely in mixed salads, sandwich layers, and decorative plates for its visual contrast against green lettuces.

Ricebean

Vigna umbellata

A small olive-green Indian Himalayan bean — once a major food crop in the Eastern Himalayas, now a "lost crop" being revived for its drought-resilience and unique nutritional profile.

Romanesco

Brassica oleracea (Botrytis Group)

The mathematically perfect vegetable — romanesco broccoli (or Roman cauliflower) forms a head of tightly packed, spiralling chartreuse-green florets that arrange themselves in a precise Fibonacci spiral; each smaller cone is a perfect miniature of the whole, making the vegetable a textbook example of a natural fractal; milder and nuttier in flavour than broccoli or cauliflower, it has become a favourite of chefs for its visual impact.

Scallion

Allium fistulosum and others

Young onions harvested before bulb formation — also called green onions or spring onions, used worldwide as both garnish and primary ingredient, especially in East Asian cooking.

Spinach

Spinacia oleracea

A leafy green native to ancient Persia, eaten raw or cooked, especially rich in iron, folate, and vitamin K.

Sprouting Broccoli

Brassica oleracea (Italica Group)

The traditional British winter brassica — purple or white sprouting broccoli produces a mass of small, tender florets on long stems throughout late winter and early spring, bridging the hungry gap between root vegetables and summer crops; unlike head broccoli, it is harvested by picking individual spears, which encourages further production; the purple variety is sweeter and more tender than supermarket broccoli.

Sweet Corn

Zea mays var. saccharata

A grain crop bred for high-sugar kernels eaten as a vegetable — derived from teosinte over 9,000 years ago in Mexico, now the staple summer barbecue side dish across the Americas.

Turmeric

Curcuma longa

A bright orange-yellow rhizome from a tropical Asian plant — fundamental to South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, the source of curry's golden color, and the focus of an enormous global "anti-inflammatory" supplement industry.

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.

Water Chestnut

Eleocharis dulcis

An aquatic vegetable grown in muddy ponds — a small, round corm with crisp, white flesh that retains its crunch even after cooking; a key ingredient in Chinese stir-fries, dumpling fillings, and Southeast Asian desserts.

Watercress

Nasturtium officinale

A peppery aquatic green growing wild in cold streams across Eurasia and the Americas, eaten in sandwiches, salads, and soups, and ranked the most nutrient-dense vegetable on Earth.

Wild Garlic

Allium ursinum

The woodland carpet of spring — wild garlic (*ramsons*) carpets British and European deciduous woodland floors from March to May, filling the air with garlic scent before the tree canopy closes; every part is edible, from the leaves and stems to the white star-shaped flowers; it is the most aromatic of Britain's edible wild plants and is now widely foraged for restaurant kitchens.

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