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other edible parts of common garden vegetables

pollinator

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Location: near Athens, GA

posted 7 years ago

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I ran across this document over the weekend. It is good info. I wonder if we could add to the list?

Secondary Edible Parts of Vegetables

by M. J. Stephens, Department of Horticulture
University of Florida

The culinary reputation of most vegetables is based primarily on the edible qualities of one or sometimes two primary parts of the plant. For example, the tomato is the leading garden vegetable, due to the popular appeal of its fruit, while the turnip contributes both its root and its leaves as table fare. For home gardeners who grow and have the entire vegetable plant at their disposal, other plant parts may be edible, although perhaps not so tasty as the main product. For non-gardeners, however, there is little option for eating parts other than those offered for sale.
The following is a list of ordinary garden vegetables with both commonly-eaten parts and less-frequently eaten parts. Obviously, in a list such as this, there may be quite a few omissions.
Although many of the secondary plant parts are edible, their popularity as food items is diminished by lack of proper flavor or unfavorable texture. For example, the leaves of practically all the cabbage family are edible, but the strong flavors of some species are disagreeable or too strong for most people�s taste.
The edible leaves and stem tips of sweet potato vines are well known in many parts of the world. Often considered a poor man�s food, sweet potato foliage has a rich protein content that helps supplement the nutritional value of the roots.
As for all vegetable parts, there is a great deal of variation within varieties in flavor and culinary characteristics of these secondary parts. For example, some sweet-potato stem tips in certain varieties are bitter, with a resinous flavor that is too strong.
Quite often, cooking is necessary to make the parts edible. Raw leaves eaten fresh may even be slightly poisonous in some cases.

Follow the link for the table - it won't format on here:
https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2005/may05/SecVeget.html

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posted 7 years ago

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This topic is neat, and is something I have interest in. Here's a few I can think of-

radish tops
beet tops
carrot tops
broccoli leaves (and I think the whole stem too, but is rather fibrous)
cabbage leaves (people seem to only want to use the head, those other giant leaves are good too)

I like radish, beet and carrot tops in my salad when I have them. The radish tops can take some getting used to, they're a little prickly.

I'm sure there are many others and I can't wait to see what other folks here say.

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Wj Carroll

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posted 7 years ago

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Radish tops are a favorite of mine - I cook them in a little olive oil and salt. They taste like oysters!

Stacy Witscher

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posted 7 years ago

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Squash blossoms are a favorite of mine. I eat the leaves of pretty much all brassicas, some are tougher than others.

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Mike Haasl

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posted 7 years ago

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Radish pods are really good too. Kind of like a cross between a snap pea and a radish.

Broccoli stalks are very edible. Sometimes peeling them helps but we steam them up with the florets.

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