Olives, onion, oregano. Can you think of other vegetables that start with “O”? We’ve made a list of all vegetables that start with O and gave you a brief explanation and one fun fact about each of them.
Without further ado, here’s the list.
7 Vegetables That Start with O
1. Olives
Olives are available in many sizes and colors, from Kalamata to Castelvetrano and Manzanilla, adding a savory and salty flavor and aromatic and meaty quality to various dishes and recipes. They are the fruit of olive trees that grow in many places, especially in the Mediterranean region.
They make an excellent combination with poultry and fish, but can also enhance recipes such as deviled eggs, a citrus salad, and roasted cauliflower.
You can add them to roasted veggies at the end to preserve their texture, or garnish them fresh on top of green salads. You can serve them alongside a cheeseboard, or mix them to make a spread for pizza or sandwiches.
Fun fact: you can’t eat this vegetable directly from the tree. To become edible, they are processed with brine.
2. Onion
Onion may not be your favorite veggie, but it’s an indispensable ingredient in modern cooking. It’s an edible bulb that comes in different shapes, sizes, and colors from white and yellow to purple and red. This vegetable is incredibly versatile, bringing depth and flavor to savory recipes.
Even though they can literally make you cry when chopping them, their taste is worth each and every tear. They simply make every meal taste better. You can use them chopped, sliced, liquidized, diced, or whole.
Fried onion is the perfect base for different pasta sauces. Deep-fried onion makes a delicious side to ribs and burgers. Caramelized onion pairs wonderfully when piled on cheesesteaks, patty melts, or sausage heros.
Fun fact: this vegetable dates back from the Bronze Age, or around 5,000-7,000 years ago. Plus, Egyptians considered it as a symbol for eternity, believing it will help the deceased ones succeed in the afterlife.
3. Oregano
Oregano belongs to the subset of vegetables – herbs. It originated in Greece, but it has long been used as a staple in Mediterranean cuisine. Today, it’s used all around the world thanks to the strong flavor and mild sweetness that bring aroma and warmth to many recipes.
You can use it fresh, dried as a spice, or as an oil. Whether stirred into a soup, added to a flavorful marinade, or sprinkled over a slice of pizza, oregano enhances many savory dishes.
Even though it’s most often used in small amounts, it’s full of essential nutrients like vitamin K.
Fun fact: people in Ancient Greece used to rub with oregano oil to dream their future spouse.
4. Okra
Okra or lady’s fingers originated from Ethiopia, so it thrives in hot and humid regions. Some people are not fans of these long, green pods filled with white seeds, mainly because they turn silky and slimy when cooked.
But, there’s a way to use okra without turning slimy. You can grill them, fry them, sauté them, pan-roast them, or pickle them. These cooking methods won’t make the green pods slimy. While cooking them quickly will make them crunchy, slow cooking will make them super tender.
The preparation is super easy as you only need to rinse them and chop them or use them whole. They are also used as a thickener to stews and soups.
Okra has a unique, grassy-like flavor, but some people say it tastes similar to green beans or eggplants.
Fun fact: not many people know that there are many varieties of okra, including Clemson, Emerald, Chinese, Purple, and Annie Oakley.
5. Orache
Have you ever heard about orache? This wild vegetable grows in the alkaline soil of Colorado, Denver, and along roadsides and coastlines where the sand or soil is saline. It’s a less-known cousin of spinach with triangular – or arrow-shaped green or green-blue leaves covered with a white, mealy substance. In fact, it looks similar to wild spinach.
The red or garden variety tastes like chard and it’s considered best for eating. This little-forgotten vegetable is used mainly as chard or spinach. You can enjoy it fresh in salads or steamed and boiled as its popular cousin.
If you prefer eating it raw, use younger orache leaves. If you like to use it as a spinach substitute in stir-fries, pizzas, soups, pasta, risotto, etc., it’s best to use more mature leaves.
Fun fact: orache is also called saltbush because it can grow in saline or alkaline soil.
6. Ogonori
This red or purple seaweed is also known as sea moss or ogo, and it’s typically eaten along the coasts of Southeast Asia, Japan, and the Caribbean. There are many ways to prepare ogonori, such as boiling it, steaming it, stir-frying it, stewing it, or roasting it.
Ogonori is a source of agar. In southern Thailand, people learned how to use this seaweed to make jellies by using the extracted agar.
You can also pickle it or use it in kimchi or salads. It’s a perfect bed for serving raw oysters.
Fun fact: this seaweed is known as gulaman in the Philippines, as Irish moss in Jamaica, and as kkosiraegi in Korea.
7. Oil Palm
There are two varieties of oil palm trees – one from South America, and another from Africa. Even though they are not consumed as-is, they are used for the production of vegetable oil that’s mostly used in food processing for making peanut butter, cookies, pastries, chocolate confections, cereals, bread, ice cream, and margarine. The oil is also used in cooking.
Other uses of this oil include cosmetics, cleaning products, shampoos, candles, soaps, biofuels, and pharmaceuticals.
Fun fact: this tree is the most efficient oil crop when it comes to land use.
Conclusion
Finding vegetables that start with “O” may be challenging, but we did the job for you and found seven of them. Do you know any other vegetable that starts with this letter? If you have a favorite among them, feel free to share it with us.
