Discover the 11 Vegetables That Start With T

You might think there aren’t too many vegetables that begin with the letter T. Turnip and tomato come immediately to mind, but are there others? The answer to that question is “Yes!” and they are a fascinating lot. Here are 11 vegetables whose names start with T.

1. Vegetables That Start With T: Tomato

Like a number of comestibles classified as vegetables, the tomato is actually a fruit. It’s put in the vegetable category because of its savory taste and its versatility. All kinds of dishes are made out of tomatoes, including sauces, soups, stews, salads and casseroles, and they’re delicious eaten out of hand. On top of the irony of the tomato being technically a fruit, there’s the irony that everything else about the plant it grows on, leaves, roots, and stems, is poisonous. There’s also the irony that the tomato is a staple of the Mediterranean diet even though it’s native to South America. Now, some of the very best tomatoes grow in volcanic soil in Italy.

There are now over 10,000 varieties of tomato. They range in size from the huge beefsteaks to heirloom tomatoes to plum tomatoes to cherry tomatoes, and grape tomatoes. They’re not only red but purple, yellow, and green with green zebra stripes.

2. Vegetables That Start With T: Tomatillo

How can you tell a tomatillo from a green tomato? For one thing, tomatillos grow wrapped in a papery skin that you’ll need to take off before you use it. It’s also firmer than a tomato, even when it’s ripe, and it has a tart taste when it’s raw. This makes it perfect for salsa verde. Though tomatillos are usually green, there are also purple varieties.

Though it’s name means “little tomato,” tomatillos are not even in the same genus as the tomato though they’re in the same family, Solanaceae. Tomatoes are part of the Solanum genus, while tomatillos belong to the Physalis genus.

3. Vegetables That Start With T: Turnip

There are many people who don’t know the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga. A turnip is small, has white flesh and is purplish on top, while a rutabaga is larger and yellow. Both are root vegetables, but only one starts with T. By the way, the turnip greens are also edible and are a popular cool season side dish in the American south. Turnips originated in Europe and are now grown all over the world in temperate areas. Like many other brassicas, turnips do best in coolish weather, as hot weather makes them tough.

4. Another “T” Vegetable: Tatsoi

This tender leaved brassica is native to Asia and is used in stir fries, pickles, salads and as a garnish. Its dark green leaves are spoon shaped and might be the origin of its other name of “spoon mustard.” It grown in rosettes, has a subtle flavor, and its stalks are said to have a slightly bitter and somewhat cucumbery taste. Tatsoi, like its brassica relatives, is a cool weather plant and withstands temperatures as cold as 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Taro Begins With the Letter T

Taro is also a root vegetable. It’s a corm, which is the swollen base of the plant’s stem covered in scales, and one of the first plants humans cultivated for food. A staple in Africa, Oceania and much of Asia, taro is also widely eaten in southern Europe, and there are entire taro plantations in Hawaii. Other names for taro that start with T are the Korean toran and the Bukusu tolotolo.

The vegetable is starchy, much like the potato, and is roasted, boiled or fried. As with the potato, some of the meals made with taro are elaborate. Its flavor is described as nutty but sweet. The sweetness allows taro, unlike the potato, to be served as a dessert. Taro also differs from potatoes in that its leaves and stems are also eaten. The potato is a member of the nightshade family like the tomato, and its leaves and stems are poisonous.

Taro shouldn’t be eaten raw because it contains too much calcium oxalate and raphides. Cooking or soaking the corms overnight in water neutralizes these toxins. Taro also plays a role in Hawaiian mythology, and it’s said that a person grows from their family like a stalk grows from a corm of taro.

6. Vegetables That Start With T: Tinda

Also called Indian squash, this vegetable native to India is, like the tomato, a fruit. It looks not so much like a squash but a cross between a green apple and a green tomato. The only member of the Praecitrullus genus, tindas grow on an annual vine. The prickly vine is ready to produce fruit two and a half months after it germinates, and like other types of squash it can produce lots of tindas if it’s well cared for.

Tinda is used in curries and can be eaten raw in salads. You can also eat the seeds, an it’s also said to have health benefits. Tinda helps flush the kidneys, supports the cardiovascular and digestive systems, helps with weight loss and eases depression and anxiety.

7. Tarwi Begins with T

Tarwi is a type of lupine native to the Andes, and the white seed or bean of the plant, found in 2 to 5 inch long pods, is used in cooking. The tarwi seed is notably high in protein and has been eaten since antiquity in stews, salads, and soups. The one drawback of tarwi is that it has a bitter taste due to an abundance of an alkaloid called sparteine. Soaking the seeds for days in water gets rid of some but not all of this alkaloid.
Since the tarwi plant is a member of the pea family, it can fix nitrogen and is mowed under as a green manure.

8. Vegetables That Start With T: Tahitian Spinach

Also called belembe, this green, leafy vegetable is native to the Amazon and is used to make callaloo, a dish popular in Jamaica and other Caribbean countries. This plant grows a little over 3 feet high but has long leaves on stalks that can be 2 feet long. Like taro, the leaves need to be soaked first to remove calcium oxalate before the vegetable is cooked and eaten. Interestingly, Tahitian spinach also grows from corms, but these corms are usually too small to bother to eat.

9. Another T Vegetable: Tepary Bean

The tepary bean is native to the American southwest and Mexico and is prized because it thrives even in arid conditions. Though the soil needs to be moist when the seed is planted, an established tepary bean plant tolerates very little rainfall and temperatures as high as 118 degrees F. People have eaten this bean as far back as 500 B.C.

The plant is a vine that can grow as long as 13 feet, and its pods ripen in the fall. The beans are usually small and can be a variety of colors. Tepary is often grown with corn and squash, with the vine twining up the corn stalk. This is called Three Sisters Agriculture and forms the basis of a balanced diet. Tepary bean is used in any sort of recipe that calls for beans, including stews and soups.

10. Vegetables That Start With T: Tree Onion

The tree onion is not found in a tree but gets its name because its top bears onion bulblets instead of the flowers you’d see in other types of onions. The tree onion is a hybrid of the Welsh onion and the shallot. Over time the bulblets may get so large and heavy that they bend over and root a ways from their parent. This gives the onion the other name of walking onion.

The underground bulbs of tree onions can be tough-skinned and have an exceptionally strong flavor and smell. Some are round while others resemble leeks. Generally, cooks use the tree onion like a regular scallion, as a garnish or in pancakes or kimchi.

11. Vegetables That Start With T: Tigernut

Tigernuts, native to the Eastern Hemisphere, aren’t nuts but tubers of a type of sedge. They’re eaten out of hand as a snack or used to make a sweet drink called horchata de chufa in Spain. The tubers are eaten raw or cooked and do taste like nuts with a hint of sweetness. Since they’re tough, tigernuts need to be soaked in water for a while. People also turn tigernuts into flour, and they’re used to add flavor to ice cream. They can also be turned into “tiger milk” that can be enjoyed by people who are lactose intolerant.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Kamila Koziol/Shutterstock.com