Types of Fruit and Vegetables

Types of fruit and vegetables Different kinds of fruit and vegetable have different shapes, colours, texture and flavour GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables The leaves of an Iceberg lettuce, a Romaine lettuce, or a Trocadero or Mantecosa are quite different. These differences affect how long they keep in the refrigerator, and are especially important in preparing a salad. “When you talk about lettuce, think salad,” was a friend’s advice to a grower. The message highlighted that today’s vegetable buyers have their own culture and look at foods from the standpoint of how they fit in with their recipes rather than the original properties of the species or variety. People want to know more about food, and especially 182 about chefs’ recipes and techniques. Chefs and modern ca- tering enterprises are the new opinion formers in all things culinary, and are aware of the value of having the public know about food. Not all fruit and vegetable products are by any means the same: the differences are in fact very considera- ble. In this fourth edition of the second period of the Guide to the Best Fruit and Vegetables, as in earlier editions, par- ticipating companies and organizations highlight what makes their brands distinctive in terms of source, designation, post-harvest processes and preparation for sale. Some differences have to do with the specific variety, even within one and the same species. We list some of these key differences www.frutas-hortalizas.com below: Long* Elongated* * Photograph: Fito GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables Striped and white varieties Round type AUBERGINE An aubergine is a fruit of up to 30 cm length, round, oblong or elongated in shape, with a smooth shiny skin varying in colour from white to purple, green, black yellow and red: the commo- 183 nest colour on ripening is purple, and some varieties are streaked white or purple. Most aubergines in the market are elongated or round. Not all taste the same: cultivar developers at seed companies assert that some varieties are sweet while others have a bitter touch. Aubergine is never eaten raw, Aubergine colours always cooked. Many countries have a typical aubergine-based dish; Spain, for instance, has xamfaina, escalivada and espencat, where aubergine is coupled www.frutas-hortalizas.com with peppers, Italy has capotana, the Greeks have moussaka, and Turkey has imam bayildi. The best-known aubergine dish is the French ratatouille. Aubergine is roast or sautéed, but not boiled; it is typically stuffed with a filling. To steam aubergine, slice it and sprinkle with salt to trigger a process of osmosis that will expel the bitter-tasting compounds and enhance the pleasant Some are dark green, others light green. taste lent by the insoluble substances. Shown in the photograph next to a yellow courgette COURGETTE Courgette – also known as zucchi- ni – is one of the two varieties of Cucur- bita pepo. Today it is widely grown GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables throughout Europe as “summer squash”. The large yellow flowers are much sought-after by high-end chefs. Depending on the variety, the size Courgette flowers. A culinary delicacy can differ widely. The rind is smooth and hard, and also varies in colour. Round types * Photograph: Graines Voltz 184 Like other Cucurbitaceae species, Cucurbita pepo is readily crossed with cognate species, leading to frequent confusion among the many hybrids that vary in colour and size. Some courgettes are even sold for decorative purposes. Sales unit with yellow and green courgette www.frutas-hortalizas.com GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables 185 Some courgettes have surprising shapes. They are sometimes used as decoration, in flower arrangements or as Halloween props. www.frutas-hortalizas.com LETTUCE Salads Popular lettuce varieties include Iceberg, Romaine and Trocadero. Iceberg, with its dense, tight head like a cabbage, is almost devoid of savour, but is widely recognised for its crunchy texture and ease of fine slicing – it has been the most popular lettuce variety for many years in North America. Romaine lettuces have a long head, with thick, crunchy, spear-like leaves; a very characteristic winter sub-variety in Spain is Oreja de Mulo, “mule’s ear”. Romaine France’s most popular lettuce is Photograph: Ramiro Arnedo Trocadero, with a round head, fine leaves, a buttery texture and a delicate but inten- GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables se flavour. Batavia is similar, and has that same buttery texture, but the head is looser and the leaves are curled. Oak-Leaf lettuce, with its curled, distinctively purple leaves and loose head, is not a variety of L sativa but a separate species, Chicorium intybus. Consumers are increasingly unaware of the available lettuce varieties, while commercial market gardens constantly innovate, introducing new cultivars with different shapes, appealing colours and more daring flavours. Today’s lettuce growers have set up IV Gamma minimal processing facilities to offer washed, Cogollos de Tudela or Little Gem lettuces bagged salad leaves to supermarkets and are baby Romaine lettuces greengrocer’s, thus making salads an Photograph: Ramiro Arnedo 186 attractive, modern, healthy convenience food. Iceberg Trocadero www.frutas-hortalizas.com Photograph: Rijk Zwaan Photograph: Rijk Zwaan WILD MUSHROOMS Edible wild mushrooms are not a market garden crop but, from a commercial standpoint, can be regarded as a vegetable. Examples include the button mushroom, Amanita ponderosa, saffron milk cap, parasol and Caesar’s mushroom (ou de reig in Catalan). Oak Leaf, Lollo Rosso GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables Typical ready-for-use mushroom presentations CABBAGES Brassicas The botanical genus Brassica inclu- des cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. A salad box. A box containing a mix of whole Most commercial varieties are of the lettuces Brassica oleracea species, and hence have many common features despite their different appearance. Chinese cabbage, 187 however, belongs to a different species – Brassica rapa pekinensis. Cauliflower and broccoli are the immature inflorescences or “flower heads” of the cabbage plant; other cabbages are grown for their leaves and occa- sionally the stalk. Some cabbages grow as compact heads around a central bud – these kinds are known in Spanish as repollo – while other looser varieties are used for their individual leaves. Leaf cabbages embrace a broad group of va- Creative salads are now open to all rieties which have been grown in almost www.frutas-hortalizas.com Brussels sprout Milan or Savoy cabbage Photograph: Bejo Photograph: Bejo GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables White cabbage the whole of Europe for centuries, chiefly by-products serve plants as natural 188 for use in soups and stocks, and also pesticides, and they lend cabbage its formerly used to feed farm animals to bitter or acidic taste. They have valuable improve their meat. Though a winter health properties, such as helping to vegetable in origin, the numerous culti- prevent cancer. Cabbages are also low- vars of cabbage around the world ensure calorie foods. that Brassica species are available the Cabbages can cause flatulence or year round. heavy digestion owing to its fibre content Their nutritional composition has and sulphur compounds, but this effect common characteristics, though some is mitigated by cooking it with cumin or varieties are distinctive. Brassicas contain fennel. These drawbacks are amply made organic compounds known as glucosi- up for by the health benefits. nolates. These are secondary metabolites Cabbage can be steamed, baked, www.frutas-hortalizas.com that contain sulphur and nitrogen. Their fried, stewed, boiled or grilled, or used Pointed cabbages Leaf cabbages Photograph: Bejo Photograph: Sakata GUIDE of the Best Fruits and Vegetables in soups and casseroles. With some botrytis, is a very ancient crop originating exceptions, it can also be eaten raw in a in Asia. It originated botanically from salad. broccoli, of which it is a variety. Its large The most commercially widespread round white flower head is more compact Brassica oleracea varieties are: broccoli, than broccoli and keeps for longer. It is cauliflower, white or Savoy cabbage, high in fibre and potassium and low in Milan cabbage, red cabbage, Brussels sodium, which makes it a suitable diure- sprout, and kohlrabi; Chinese cabbage or tic for people with high blood pressure. bok choi, Brassica rapa pekinensis, is Cauliflower is more easily digested than also common. other cabbage varieties. Broccoli, Brassica oleracea var Cabbages are vegetables that have italica, originated somewhere in nor- formed part of the human diet since an- thwest Europe. Its flower heads range cient times. They were grown by the from dark green to bluish or purple, and Egyptians and regarded as medicinal. are more open and uneven in shape than They are usually eaten cooked in some cauliflower. Broccoli is steamed, grilled form, but now also used raw in salads. or eaten raw with dips or cheeses. Fermentation of cabbage in a salt solution Demand for broccoli is constantly to make sauerkraut is a process that 189 on the rise owing to increasing awareness preserves the nutritional and nutraceutic of its properties as a healthy and nutri- properties of cabbage and makes it more tious food and its powerful protection digestible. Round cabbages are the most against cancer, attributable to its sulphu- popular kind, with an energy content of raphane content deriving from its gluco- 24 to 28 kcal per 100 g of fresh pro- sinolate compounds. It is low-calorie and duct. has a pleasant flavour. It is high in fibre White cabbage, Brassica oleracea and rich in minerals such as potassium var capitata alba, has a round or oblong and calcium, and contains vitamins A, C cabbage head with tightly bound leaves. and E. Broccoli consumption also su- The more compact the cabbage head, the pports cardiovascular health and nervous better, because the inner leaves are then function.

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