Vegetables

🇧🇫Burkina Faso

Koumvando

Sautéed wild eggplant leaves with onions, tomatoes, chili, garlic, and sometimes soumbala; a bitter green vegetable dish served with tô, rice, or couscous.

🇬🇷Peloponnese, Greece

Kounoupidi kapama

Κουνουπίδι καπαμάς

Cauliflower braised in a sweet-spiced tomato and cinnamon pot until melting, a winter speciality of the Peloponnese.

🇩🇪Hesse, Germany

Krautshäuptchen

Krautshäuptchen is a Hessian cabbage parcel filled with minced meat, onion and herbs, braised until the leaves soften.

🇵🇼Palau

Kukau

Kukau is prepared taro or taro leaves cooked until soft, often mashed or simmered with coconut into a starchy Palauan vegetable dish.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kumu

Wild leafy greens cooked in coconut cream — the universal PNG side dish, where 'kumu' refers to any edible wild greens gathered from the garden or forest.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kumu Musong

Kumu musong is a leafy-green PNG preparation cooked with coconut and aromatics until tender; it is served as a vegetable side with roots or fish.

🇧🇬Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Kurtovska Kapiya Pepper

Куртовска капия

Long, thick-walled sweet red pepper from the Plovdiv plain — the pepper that lyutenitsa, kyopoolu and chushki burek are all built on.

🇫🇲Chuuk State (Central FSM), Federated States of Micronesia

Kón

Kon is breadfruit boiled and pounded into dense paste; plain kon differs from coconut-rich mwatun and the chiefly emesefich form.

🇬🇷Greece

Lahanodolmades

Λαχανοντολμάδες

Cabbage rolls in avgolemono.

🇺🇬Uganda

Lakotokoto

A Ugandan leafy vegetable preparation cooked with groundnut or sesame sauce.

🇻🇺Vanuatu

Laplap

Tanna Laplap

Laplap is Vanuatu's grated root-crop or breadfruit mixture, combined with coconut and ordinary meat, fish, or vegetables, wrapped in leaves and baked until dense and tender.

🇲🇾Sabah, Malaysia

Latok

Sea grapes, seaweed with grape-like bubbles, fresh crunchy bubbles with salty ocean flavor and not slimy.

🇬🇧Wales, United Kingdom

Laverbread

Laver seaweed boiled for hours to a dark green purée, rolled in oatmeal and fried, served with bacon and cockles at breakfast.

🇮🇩Central Java, Indonesia

Leaf-Wrapped Coconut Parcels

Buntil

Javanese meat and grated coconut parcels wrapped in cassava leaves, savory and aromatic.

🇩🇪Saxony, Germany

Leipziger Allerlei

Leipziger Allerlei combines peas, carrots, asparagus, morels and sometimes crayfish in a light butter or cream sauce.

🇧🇹Bhutan

Lom

ལོམ།

Turnip leaves dried in bundles on rooftops through the autumn and rehydrated into stews through the winter.

🇨🇳China

Lotus Root

莲藕

The linked underwater rhizome of the lotus, whose cross-section is a ring of holes; crunchy when stir-fried, floury when slow-cooked in soup.

🇫🇯Fiji

Lumi

Lumi is a Fijian leafy-green preparation, commonly cooked down with coconut milk, onion, and a little chilli until tender and silky.

🇸🇪Sweden

Långkål

Långkål is a vegetable dish from Halland County, rooted in local cooking tradition.

🇵🇪Junín, Peru

Maca

Andean superfood root grown above 4,000m in Junín. Known for energy, stamina, and adaptogenic properties.

🇧🇷Brazil

Macaxeira

Cassava in its starchy root form, a tropical tuber that is Brazil's daily carbohydrate in the north and northeast. Used boiled, fried, mashed and in flour.

🇧🇷Brazil

Macaxeira Frita

Fried cassava sticks or chunks, crispy outside and starchy inside, a Northeastern snack.

🇰🇲Comoros

Madaba

Cassava leaves pounded and cooked slowly with coconut, aromatics and fish or meat in Comorian kitchens.

🇫🇲Pohnpei State (Capital FSM), Federated States of Micronesia

Mahi Umw

Mahi Umw is breadfruit roasted over hot stones and coconut husks in an earth oven, producing smoky skin and soft starch.

🇾🇹Mayotte

Mahorais Boiled Starchy Vegetables

Bata-Bata

Cassava, green banana, breadfruit (and sometimes yam or sweet potato) simply boiled or steamed in salted water. The everyday starch accompaniment to grilled meats, fish and stews.

🇺🇸New England, United States

Maine Fiddleheads

The curled young fronds of the ostrich fern, a brief spring delicacy foraged in Maine and the Northeast.

🇺🇬Uganda

Malewa

Bamboo shoots from the slopes of Mount Elgon, smoked over a fire, dried and then cooked slowly in groundnut sauce.

🇰🇪Kenya

Managu

African nightshade greens simmered or sautéed as a bitter Kenyan vegetable relish.

🇩🇴Dominican Republic

Mangú

Mangú con Los Tres Golpes

The Dominican national breakfast: boiled green plantains mashed with oil, butter, or cooking water until smooth and creamy. Topped with pickled red onions and served with los tres golpes.

🇺🇸Louisiana, United States

Maque Choux

A Louisiana dish of corn simmered with onions, peppers, and often cream or bacon.

🇦🇹Lower Austria, Austria

Marchfeld Asparagus

Marchfeldspargel

Protected white and green asparagus from Lower Austria’s Marchfeld, harvested in spring for its tight tips and fresh sweetness.

🇬🇧England, United Kingdom

Marsh Samphire

A bright green succulent that grows on salt marshes, naturally salty and eaten briefly steamed with butter and fish.

🇧🇴Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Masaco

Masaco de platano

A Bolivian dish of mashed plantains or yuca with charque (dried meat), fried and pressed, a Santa Cruz and lowland classic.

🇨🇩DR Congo

Mashed Plantain Balls

Lituma

A popular Congolese side dish made from boiled plantains that are peeled and pounded into a sticky, pliable dough; spices can be added for flavor; naturally sweeter than fufu; prized by populations from the equatorial zones of the central basin; pairs wonderfully with grilled fish or meat; a simpler but no less delicious alternative to fufu.

🇳🇱Netherlands

Mashed Potato with Vegetables

Stamppot

Traditional Dutch dish of mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables, served with rookworst or bacon, the national comfort food.

🇵🇪Peru

Mashua

A peppery Andean tuber traditionally cooked in highland communities and markets.