Vegetables have been cultivated by humans for many thousands of years in different parts of the world, and foraged for by hunter-gatherer humans before that.

The wild plants that were found by early homo sapiens to be non-toxic(the vast majority of plants are indeed toxic for human consumption), nutritious and tasty, have been selectively bred over many generations. They form the fruits, vegetables, legumes, herbs and spices, nuts and seeds and whole grains, that cultures around the world consume today as part of healthful and traditional diets.

The technical definition of what constitutes a vegetable is difficult to pin-down, but the clearest way to generally categorize a vegetable botanically is all the edible parts of a plant that are not the fruit. This includes the leaves, stems, roots, flowers and sometimes the seeds, though the seeds can often be classified as legumes or nuts, and the other parts when in dried form, as spices.

In cooking, vegetables are typically categorized as being any kind of savory plant food, which accounts for the reason that many botanical fruits, such as avocados, cucumbers, squash and tomatoes are often referred to as vegetables culinary. Mushrooms, which are an entirely different organism, also are often referred to as vegetables.

The main categories of culinary vegetables include:

• Leaves – Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach, etc…
• Roots – Carrot, Radish, Beetroot, etc…
• Bulbs – Onion, Garlic, Spring Onion, etc…
• Flowers (many also categorized as “Cruciferous”) – Broccoli, Cauliflower, Artichoke, etc…
• Fungi (Mushrooms) – Button, Portobello, Shiitake, Truffle, etc…
• Fruits – Cucumber, Pumpkin, Tomato, etc…
• Seeds (Legumes) – Green bean, pea, etc…
• Stems – Asparagus, Celery, etc…