An aquatic plant found near springs and slow-moving streams, watercress is an often-overlooked, leafy green food source that is a close cousin to mustard greens, cabbage, and arugula. An attractive, succulent plant, watercress bears small, round, slightly scalloped leaves, which, in summer, produce tiny white flowers that become small pods with two rows of edible seeds. Watercress has been cultivated in Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas for millennia for use as both food and a medicine…

What most people know about water chestnuts, sometimes more specifically called Chinese water chestnuts, are the basics: they’re white, have a crunchy texture and a fresh, mild taste, and are often used in Chinese cooking. In the West, most who use the small, round “corms” – short, underground, slightly bulbous stem bases – in their culinary endeavors buy them either whole or sliced in a can.

Water chestnuts are perennials from a family of plants called sedge, a type of marshy grass…

For many people, summertime is simply incomplete without serving a delicious array of scrumptious green vegetables. But here’s an idea: why not take a break from the usual leafy green salads, and dig into a plateful of succulent zucchini instead?

A member of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), zucchini is an easy-to-grow summer squash native to Central America and Mexico. It was brought to the United States

While yams appear very similar to sweet potatoes, they’re quite different. In fact, they’re not even related. Yams belong to the Dioscoreae or morning glory family, while sweet potatoes are from the genus Convolvulaceae. Yams (from the African word “nyami,” meaning “to eat”) have only one embryonic seed leaf, while sweet potatoes have two.

Yams are grown throughout Africa, but Nigeria is the world’s most prolific producer, exporting to 70% of the world market…