Several vegetables have seeds that you can use to grow them in your own garden. Alternatively, the presence of seeds may affect how you look at the veggies and their use in certain recipes.
In many cases, the seeds can be used with the vegetable. However, in other cases, vegetables with seeds need to be cored or deseeded before use.
In some cases, the seeds of the vegetables can be used separately and come in handy for some snacks or use in recipes.
Let’s take a quick look and see what vegetables have seeds.
What Vegetables Have Seeds? A List Of Some Popular Ones
1. Tomatoes
Technically, tomatoes are generally classified as a fruit. However, as their use in food and recipes goes, they are treated as vegetables.
So, for our discussion, we’ll skip the technical details and start with tomatoes, one of the most common ingredients in recipes and cuisines.
Tomato seeds are rich in nutrition and in some cases, their presence in the food plays a role in its texture. Similarly, when making something like tomato sauce or puree, you may want to remove the seeds for a better texture.
Most recipes are okay with the presence of tomato seeds.
2. Eggplants
Eggplants come in several varieties, sizes, and shapes. And generally speaking, eggplants will have seeds. Technically, eggplants are berries and contain seeds within their flesh.
The seeds too are quite nutritious and contain many vitamins and minerals. Most of the time, eggplant seeds are cooked with the vegetable.
3. Peppers
Peppers come in a whole lot of varieties, sizes, and shapes. They can be as crazy hot as the Carolina reaper, or very subtle as with the banana pepper.
Maybe, it’s just the good old jalapeno pepper. For pretty much all of these choices, you’ll find that peppers contain seeds.
So, whether you’re using them as a vegetable or a condiment, you’ll have a run-in with the plant’s seeds!
4. Pumpkin
Most of the fame of pumpkins perhaps comes from their use in Halloween decorations. But whether it’s pumpkin pie, latte, or other countless recipes, this vegetable finds countless uses. In most cases, seeds are removed from the pumpkin when using them for food.
However, don’t throw away these seeds! Pumpkin seeds can be excellent snacks. Start by cleaning the seeds and drying them a bit.
As the next step, place some on a baking sheet and place them in the oven at 350F. In about 45 minutes, your delicious pumpkin seed snack will be ready.
5. Cucumbers
The crunchy and fresh cucumber is very well known for its use in pickles. These vegetables are full of seeds. If you slice a cucumber, you’ll notice it has quite a large number of seeds.
This versatile veggie has plenty of uses and you can even eat it raw. The crunchy and cool cucumber is quite a treat!
6. Peas
Well, to be clear, peas are seeds. The pod is the fruit of the plant, and the peas contained inside are seeds. Peas are an excellent example of the seeds being the important edible part of the plant.
Versatile as this vegetable is, its seeds are pretty hardy as well. If you’ve got some land in your garden, give peas a shot. The plant is quick to grow and looks fairly good with its greens.
7. Squash
Squash is closely related to pumpkin. Available in several varieties, squash too is a fairly versatile vegetable with a whole lot of things to offer. There are some seedless varieties of squash, though the most common ones tend to have seeds.
Much like pumpkins, squash seeds are edible as well. They’re rich in nutrition and make for a great snack.
To enjoy them, wash the seeds and let them dry a bit. Then keep them on a baking sheet and place it in the oven. Keep the oven at 300F for 30 minutes and you’ll have some amazing squash seeds as a snack. Add some salt and pepper to season it!
8. Okra
The nutritious and good tasting okra too is all full of seeds. In fact, all you have to do is to cut the skin of the okra and you’ll notice the rather large amount of seeds inside.
Okra is a very versatile vegetable and can be cooked in a lot of ways. Cooking okra the traditional way leaves it soft and gives it something of a slimy texture. The latter is often a reason why many people aren’t big fans of this veggie.
However, there are other ways to prepare it as well. You can bake it or fry it and even dry the okra and powder it for use in some recipes.
9. Bottle Gourd
Bottle gourds often contain a large number of seeds. Usually, the seeds go just fine with the vegetable and add taste and texture to the recipe. Although if you’re not fond of the seeds, they’re easy to remove from the vegetable.
10. Beans
The famous beans are available in hundreds of varieties and are popular all over the world. Beans are classified as pulses and are legumes. To be clear, beans are the seed of the plant. So, these vegetables are seeds rather than simply being vegetables with seeds.
11. Green Beans
Green beans are the raw form of the conventional beans, though not every variety of beans has their green beans as edible. In a way, these are similar to peas, where the green bean itself is the pod that contains the seeds (beans).
Although unlike peas, the green covering is entirely edible.
These are a versatile vegetable and can work with several recipes and cooking methods. This usually involves cooking and roasting.
12. Avocado
Avocados are another fruit that’s often treated as a vegetable. The fruit (vegetable) includes a huge seed in the middle surrounded by a fleshy body.
These fruits are good tasting and enjoy immense popularity. Their fame has only gone up in recent years and the fruit is now available across most parts of the world.
13. Coccinia
Coccinia tastes a lot like squash and even looks a fair bit like squash. This green vegetable is versatile and has many culinary uses. You could eat them raw, roast them, or experiment with recipes to find the way that works best for you.
14. Garlic
Though it’s often used as a spice and condiment, garlic is technically a vegetable. It is part of the allium family of vegetables, which includes the famous onion. Each clove of garlic is a seed that can produce a new plant!
15. Muskmelon
Muskmelon is a fruit, though it sometimes fulfills the role of a vegetable. Much like other melons or pumpkin, the muskmelon is large and fleshy. Its center is a core full of seeds, which are usually removed before the muskmelon is enjoyed raw or prepared for a recipe.
Much like pumpkin seeds, muskmelon seeds too are edible and make for a great snack.
What Are Vegetables With Seed And Why It’s So Big a Deal?
Pretty much all vegetables don’t have seeds inside them. Scientifically speaking, a lot of foods that we usually think of as vegetables are actually fruits!
For example, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and green peppers are all fruits. Similarly, eggplants are berries and beans and peas are legumes.
While we classify several of these as vegetables for culinary use, they are mostly fruits or other plant varieties.
So, if vegetables don’t contain seeds how do they propagate?
Vegetable plants do grow seeds, it’s just that we don’t eat most of them. For example, the potato plant can flower and provide seeds.
Though technically, a potato plant may also grow from the eye of the potato, it’s not a real seed. Some other vegetables, like carrots, also grow their seeds separately.
For some vegetables, stem cuttings or root propagation may be used as a way to keep them growing.
Conclusion
Scientifically speaking, vegetables don’t contain seeds. So, how do we so often see vegetables with seeds? Well, the reason is that many of these are scientifically not classified as vegetables. For example, tomatoes and cucumbers are classified as fruits while eggplants are berries.