If someone were to ask you, right now about veggies that start with E; your thoughts may immediately go to the familiar ones: carrots, broccoli, or maybe even tomatoes (even though they are actually considered a fruit).
There are hundreds and thousands of vegetables in the world, all grown in different regions of our great, green earth. Some are only grown and sold in certain areas, meaning you may not have even heard of them.
For example, have you ever heard of an endive? What about an escarole? These are delicious vegetables that hold several health benefits, and you may have never even heard of their names before.
If someone were to ask you to name a vegetable beginning with the letter ‘E’, your first thought may be the obvious: the eggplant.
Although, depending on where you live in the world, you may not call this specific vegetable an ‘eggplant’: this is the name that Americans and Canadians use.
In the UK and Ireland, it is known as an aubergine. In certain areas of Africa and Asia, it is called a brinjal.
Pushing these facts aside, let’s just call the vegetable an ‘eggplant’ for argument’s sake. How many other vegetables could you name, that begin with the letter ‘E’? Could you think of any others?
The truth is, there aren’t many vegetables that start with the letter ‘E’. In fact, we could only find 8 (technically, we only found 6).
We have complied a list of every vegetable we could find beginning with the letter ‘E’, and we have added some facts about each vegetable,
so that you can learn a little more about them as you keep reading. Perhaps you may decide to try some of them for yourself once you have finished reading this article.
So, let’s get into it.
1. Eggplant (Solanum Melongena)
Before we go further, we have a confession to make: an eggplant is not technically a vegetable. It is a fruit. However, it is vastly considered to be a vegetable, therefore we are willing to make an exception in this list.
The eggplant is a glossy, purple colored fruit that is rounded in form, sometimes resembling an egg in shape.
When grown naturally, in the wild, the fruit will usually grow to around 3 cm long. However, the eggplant can reach a height of 30 cm when grown in a cultivated form, growing 10 times larger than when they are grown in a natural state.
Eggplants are very good for your health, as they include plenty of phytonutrients, anthocyanin, and fiber.
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2. English Pea (Pisum Sativum)
The English pea – also known as the garden pea or the sweet pea – is a small, round vegetable that is grown inside a long, oval-shaped pod.
There are typically between 6 and 10 peas that grow inside a single pod, although sometimes there may be more or less.
The peas themselves are almost always green, whereas the pods that they grow inside are often also green, but sometimes appear a golden yellow, and, in rare cases, a deep purple.
The average weight of a single English pea is between 0.1 and 0.36 grams. They are so small that they typically come packaged in bulk (if they have been removed from their pods).
Peas are a great source of nutrition, containing large quantities of iron, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, and folate thiamine.
3. Earthnut Pea (Lathyrus Tuberosus)
The earthnut pea – also known as a tuberous pea, or an aardaker – is not much like an English pea, or any green pea that you are likely to eat with a roast dinner.
Instead, they are much larger, darker, and have a natural nutty flavor.
Earthnut peas grow from a plant that also grows bouts of beautiful, pink flowers that are known to have a particularly sweet scent.
It is the tubers attached to the plant’s roots that are edible, and are known as the ‘earthnut peas’.
These vegetables can be boiled or roasted before consumption, and taste great when paired with potatoes, or sweet potatoes.
The plant itself grows to an average height of 1.2 m, while the tubers grow between 1.2 to 2 inches long.
4. Elephant Foot Yam (Amorphophallus Paeoniifolius)
The elephant foot yam is another tuber that is typically found in tropical regions within Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
While they are commonly consumed as a vegetable, they are occasionally grown as a ‘cash crop,’ meaning that they are grown for the sake of profit.
The plant that the elephant foot yam grows from is typically covered by a cluster of deep purple flowers, creating a wrinkly texture that loosely resembles an elephant’s skin.
The vegetable grows from the root underground, and is fairly similar to a sweet potato, both visually and flavor-wise.
This vegetable is used for various dishes around the world, including curries, chutneys, and even ‘potato’ chips.
5. Elephant Garlic (Allium Ampeloprasum Var Aampeloprasum)
Despite its name, the elephant garlic is a vegetable that holds more similarities to an onion or a leek than your typical clove of garlic.
The flavor of a clove of elephant garlic is a lot milder than onions and garlic: it can be eaten on its own, due to its moderate taste.
Depending on how long it is left to grow before it is harvested, it may develop several bulbs, like garlic, or will simply remain as a single one, like an onion.
While the plant grows to, roughly, 2-3 feet tall (1-2 feet wide), the elephant garlic cloves can grow to more than three times the size of the average garlic clove. One elephant garlic clove may be the same size as a whole bulb of garlic.
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6. Enset (Ensete Ventricosum)
The enset – also known as an Ethiopian banana, a pseudo-banana, or a false banana – is a staple food in Ethiopia, where over 20 million people consume it on a daily basis.
The plant can also be found in numerous other areas of Africa, such as Uganda, Kenya, and Mozambique.
It is very similar to a banana in many ways. It is grown from a huge perennial herb, which can grow to up to 20 feet tall, covered in several banana-like leaves.
The enset itself looks like a larger, thicker, darker banana with a purple-pink colored skin.
Unfortunately, this ‘vegetable’ is also, technically, a fruit, but like the others mentioned in this article, it is widely considered to be a vegetable.
The fruit itself has a very bitter taste, and is virtually inedible. It is the stems of the fruit, and the seeds, that are used within meals.
7. Endive (Cichorium Endivia)
Endive is a green, leafy vegetable that comes in three variations: the endive, the common endive, and common chicory.
This is one of the most difficult vegetables to grow in the entire world. In order to grow this plant, it needs to be, first, grown in a field for 150 days, before being harvested.
It is then stored in a cold environment for a short period of time, before being replanted in a darker, cooler area for 28 days.
The flavor has been said to have a nutty flavor, as well as tasting quite sweet, with a hint of bitterness. The texture, on the other hand, is fairly similar to a leaf of lettuce.
The endive can be cooked, or eaten raw.
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8. Edamame
You may be more familiar with the vegetable, edamame, through its more commonly known name: soybeans.
Edamame are a highly popular ingredient in East Asian countries, where they are used in soups, stews, and sauces. They are steamed or boiled, and then salted for flavor, before served alongside other seasonings.
It has a very high nutritional value, containing vitamins B6, C, K, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium. It also contains antioxidants such as quercetin, rutin, and kaempferol.
Edamame has a similar taste to green beans, with a rougher, bumpier texture to the pod. Some say that the vegetable has a slight nutty taste, and others say it tastes quite buttery.
Final Thoughts
That was our list of 8 vegetables beginning with the letter ‘e’: the eggplant, the English pea, the earthnut pea, the elephant foot yam, the elephant garlic, the enset, the endive, and the edamame.
If you were cultured enough to have recognized all of these vegetables, you should be proud of yourself!
If you were unfamiliar with some of these names, don’t worry: you can reread this list and memorize the names for future reference.
You never know when you’ll be asked to name more than one vegetable beginning with ‘e’, and thanks to this quiz, you will have more than one answer!
Especially considering the fact that the eggplant is, technically, a fruit.
So, there we have it. We hope you enjoyed learning about vegetables beginning with the letter ‘e’.
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The majority of people who have no interest in the subject, and aren’t green fingered assume that all plants and vegetables require the same growing conditions. This is not the case at all. Each plant has its own unique and interesting history and growing process.
I hope you will find The Natural List useful, and that it will help educate you on the wide variety of different flower and plant species there are across the globe.
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