Asian Vegetables?!
Answers: What vegetables are usually used in Asian cooking? preferably Japanese and Korean cuisine.
Japanese veggies are broadly categorised into cultivated ones (yasai) and mountain veggies (sansai).
Examples of sansai:
- butterbur buds (fuki-no-to)
- water dropwort (seri)
- royal fern (zenmai)
- bracken (warabi)
- mugwort (yomogi)
- water shield (junsai), it's covered in a gelatinous stuff like frog spawn!
- Japanese wild chervil (mitsuba)
- not to forget the real natural wasabi root found in mountain streams
Leafy veggies (nappa):
- chrysanthemum leaves (shungiku)
- mustard spinach (komatsuna)
Root veggies (konsai):
- giant white radish (daikon)
- devil's tongue or elephant foot (konnyaku)
- lotus root (renkon)
- burdock root (gobo)
- yam (yama-imo)
- potato (jaga-imo)
- sweet potato (satsuma-imo)
Mushrooms (kinoko):
- shiitake, maitake, shimeji, nameko, enoki, matsutake (very expensive)
Beans (mame)
- soybeans (daizu)
- young soy beans (eda-mame)
- string beans (saya-ingen)
- red bean (azuki)
- broad bean (sora-mame)
- tiger bean (tora-mame)
- flower bean (hana-mame)
Other veggies:
- snowpeas (saya-endo)
- bamboo shoots (take-no-ko)
- spring onions (negi)
- Chinese chives (nira)
- onions (tama-negi): not common in Japanese cuisine
- eggplant (nasu)
- perilla, beefsteak plant (shiso)
- prickly ash pod (sansho)
- ginger (shoga)
- seaweed (kaiso), common varieties include wakame, nori (sea laver) & konbu (kelp). Seaweed could be considered sea veggies!
- there's also veggies commonly found elsewhere like capsicum, broccoli, tomatoes, corn etc.
For Korean veggies, the most well-used seems to be the cabbage. Koreans love their meats and there doesn't seem to be such a wide variety of veggies eaten compared to the Japanese. Like the Japanese, they also have their wild veggies, which are preferred as perceived to be pollution-free.
The Japanese use lots of fresh veggies: various types of mushrooms such as shiitake, matsutake, enoki...
Popular Japanese Vegetables:
Mushrooms are highly prized in Japan. Matsutake is a mushroom that grows only in Japanese Cypress forests.
Ginger is widely used in Japan as it is in other parts of Asia. Used in pickles, as a condiment, in cooking, to flavor tempura, cutlets, etc.
Radish (daikon) It may be sliced and added to soups, or pickled and served as an accompaniment to almost any meal. It is mashed and used in dipping sauces for sushi and tempura.
Spring onions (aka green onions or scalllions) are used in soups, noodle dishes, as a flavor in foods like cutlets and as a garnish.
Lotus root is common in pickles and tempura.
Green beans
Bean sprouts (very popular in noodles)
Bamboo Shoots
Broccoli
Capsicum (bell pepper to Americans)
Cucumbers
Cabbage
Daikon
Japanese Eggplant
Soy Beans
Spinach
Squash
Carrots
Asparagus
Watercress (especially in soups)
Leeks
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Cabbage is very popular in Korea & used to make kimchee.
In addition to many of the Japanese veggies used in Korea, Also: mogi mushrooms, doraji (bellflower roots)
radish...scallions...onion
Bok choy, edamame,snap peas, scallions,long beans,etc...