Baby vegetables are popping up everywhere these days: from salads and sautés to entrees and appetizers.
"I am a sucker for tiny vegetables. I swoon when the adjective 'baby' precedes the name of any vegetable at my farmers market," Jameson Fink of Foodista writes.
The love is there, but the mystery remains: What are they really? Where did they come from?
As far as I've found, there are a few options for what a "baby vegetable" is:
- It's an actually young vegetable.
- It's a dwarf version (a mutant that just doesn't grow as large) of a vegetable.
- It's a hybrid of different species.
- Something else...
We think that something that's supposed to be a "baby" should be young and tender but dwarf versions and hybrids will often end up just as tough and not nearly as sweet as a true baby. And guess what? They are often much more expensive than their "adult" counterparts.
Seedless, finger or ladies’ avocados, are also known as cocktail avocados, Cukes, or avocaditos. They are the seedless, pickle-shaped avocado fruits grown from improperly pollinated flowers (as the one in this image seems to be).
Baby carrots are probably the worst of the bunch. The ones you find in the grocery store are usually machine created babies: Most baby carrots you'll find in a grocery store are manufactured in factories, cut from regular carrots and mechanically peeled into baby-carrot shapes. But, if you go to your farmer's market it's possible you can find "true" baby carrots — shorties plucked from the ground earlier, like the ones in this image.
There are actually two kinds of "baby bok choi" — one kind that's harvested young, and another that's a dwarf variety. The smaller versions are tender and milder than their adult counterparts, and easier to cook. The baby one has a green stem instead of the white of the older variety, while most varieties of dwarf have the white stems.
Technically, baby corn is an actual just baby pieces of corn – they are plucked from the stalks of corn right after the "silks" emerge. But, they are often grown from specific corn varieties that have been developed in Asia specifically for good baby corn production. If they were allowed to mature, though, they would look just like regular ears of corn.
Baby artichokes are just like regular artichokes and they are picked at the same time. The reason they are smaller lies in where they were grown: In the shade. These babies don't get as much sun as their siblings, stunting their growth.
These baby cucumbers are different species of cucumber — they are a type of "burpless" cucumber which has softer skin and milder in taste — than the normal ones found in the stores. They are also called "Persian" cucumbers.
Baby broccoli, also known as "broccolini" are hybrids. They are the genetically messed up offspring of regular broccoli and a Chinese plant called gai lan to make "broccolini" with its long tender stalks and small florets. It was first developed in 1993.
These microgreens are young ones too. They are plucked early, when they are more tender. A recent study in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry actually showed that they contain more nutrients than their older counterparts.
Baby zucchini and squash are also actual babies. They are plucked before they get too big, and are usually sweeter than their adult counterparts. They also come in a type called baby scaloppini – which is a hybrid between scallop and zucchini.
Baby onions, often called pearl onions, are immature onions that are picked early. They stay small because farmers plant the onions really close together so they run out of space to grow.
hBaby onionsThese fennel plants are true babies; they are the immature versions of regular fennel. It still has the black licorice taste of the adult version, but tends to be milder.
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