History of vegetables: how did they end up on our plates?

For centuries, vegetables have travelled across continents, carried by explorers, merchants, and botanists. Aubergines, potatoes, celery, cabbages, carrots, and other parsnips… The vegetables so familiar in our everyday cooking often come from the antipodal cells, or at least from distant territories. We learn in our history classes that tomatoes and corn were brought to us from America. But what do we really know about the epic journey of our vegetables?
From antiquity to modern hybridizations, vegetables from Asia and the Near East or originating from America, I invite you on a spatio-temporal journey to the four corners of our planet. You may discover what the oldest vegetable in the world is, which vegetables are the most consumed today worldwide, and some tasty tales about their history and their journey to us!

Origin of Vegetables: The Continents That Gave Birth to Them

Three major regions of the world are the source of most of the vegetables that make up our diet today: the Near East, Asia, and the Americas. It is important to note that when we refer to this origin, we are talking about the geographical areas where these vegetables were cultivated, not where the vegetable was recorded as a wild plant. This sometimes explains the discrepancies we notice regarding the origin of certain vegetables (a good example being the unresolved debate about the aubergine, which is said to be either Chinese or Indian).

Here are the origins of some of the most commonly used vegetables today, by continent and major regions of the world:

America: tomato (Mexico and Central America), beans, squashes and courgette (Mexico), potato (Peru and Bolivia), bell pepper (Central America), sweet potato (Peru), corn (Mexico)
Asia: aubergine and cucumber (India), spinach (Persia), garlic, shallot and onion, carrot, cucumber, turnip, crosne (Japan)
Near East: peas* (Fertile Crescent), radish, lentil, chickpea, rocket, and cabbage, which was likely domesticated there.
Middle East: carrot (Afghanistan), onion (Iran and Afghanistan)

*(often accepted as one of the oldest vegetables in the world, its cultivation dating back 7,000 to 10,000 years)

Europe and Africa are also the cradle of several vegetables in our daily lives. Cabbage, fennel, Swiss chard, parsnip, broad bean, and many salads like lamb's lettuce (from Sicily and Sardinia), escarole or chicory for Europe, beetroot and artichoke coming from North Africa.

While all these vegetables were brought back by the great expeditions of the 15th and 16th centuries or by the Arab conquest (the Silk Road and the Incense Route concerned not food, but spices, fabrics, and precious woods), they underwent a slow evolution, being domesticated and then hardened in regions with climates very different from their areas of origin.

Vegetables Through Time: A Brief Timeline of an Announced Success

The consumption of vegetables is documented in numerous ancient writings and manuscripts across different cultures and eras, but also through paintings and still lifes from the Renaissance onwards. Archaeologists have thus identified the pantry of our distant ancestors, historians have investigated their introduction, and naturalists and botanists have studied their acclimatization in our countries.

As we learn in school, nomadic man did not cultivate; he was a hunter-gatherer. When he settled down, around 10,000 BC, he began to domesticate certain animals… and to plant! The first centres of settlement in the Near East, what is known as the Fertile Crescent (corresponding to Iran, Iraq, and Turkey) reported the cultivation of cereals such as barley (Hordeum vulgare), followed by wheat, oats, and rye. Considered the first cultivated food, barley was indeed on the menu of our Mediterranean ancestors.
Ancient Egypt, which has left us numerous testimonies of its dietary practices in its temples, tombs, and papyri, cultivated cabbage and cucumber, as well as chickpeas and, more surprisingly, radishes, along with the bulrush (papyrus) which was consumed. It was a predominantly vegetarian people.

Closer to us, in ancient Rome, we were able to identify the vegetables that the inhabitants of Pompeii ate: peas, broad beans, and lentils encountered in Egypt, thus many legumes, but also already appeared vegetables like cabbage, leek, onions, and asparagus. All these vegetables are mentioned by Columella, a Roman agronomist, and by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History.

history of vegetables — Legumes and cereals were among the first cultivated foods

Later still, in the Middle Ages, many manuscripts recount the vegetables that graced the tables: mostly leafy vegetables, such as spinach, orache, and borage, root vegetables (chervis, parsnip, carrots, turnips…) and so-called perpetual or perennial vegetables. There is still much evidence of legumes such as chickpeas and lentils. The beetroot makes its appearance, and Charlemagne attempts to impose it in the vegetable garden. He includes it in his Capitulare de Villis and recommends it as a vegetable crop for the Empire. Medieval cuisine often consisted of all these vegetables, consumed in the form of soups, broths, pies, and stews, with meats, game, and fish reserved for the noble classes.

The Age of Discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries further enriched this mapping of vegetables. The discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 led to the introduction of many new vegetables in Europe, such as tomatoes, potatoes, corn, bell peppers, and squashes, to name just a few. These vegetables from the New World literally fascinated our old continent. They graced the tables of monarchs and European courts, ensuring the splendour of banquets during the Renaissance, and later integrated into European cuisines in the modern era.

Subsequently, we witnessed the acclimatization of these vegetables growing in warm climates, adapting them to our regions, our humidity, and our four seasons. The greenhouses that developed from the 18th century onwards allowed for an unprecedented boom in market gardening. Farmers gradually became able to produce many types of vegetables throughout the year, increasing both diversity and productivity.

Aubergine, Carrot, and Artichoke: Three Domesticated Vegetables Under the Microscope

Alexandra has already explored the fascinating history of certain vegetables in My Vegetable Garden Comes from Afar, such as potatoes, tomatoes, or squashes. I will complete this list by discussing here the aubergine, carrot, and artichoke, three vegetables rich in flavour and colour... well... not all at the beginning!

The Aubergine

The Aubergine (Solanum melongena L), long referred to as the madman's apple or the apple of Sodom in the 14th century, had a rather poor reputation before becoming this much-loved summer vegetable in Mediterranean, Lebanese, and Asian cuisine. It was said to be dangerous, as it was associated, as was the tomato, with belladonna, which belongs to the same botanical family, the nightshades. It was attributed with causing fevers, epileptic fits, and those who ate it were even said to lose their sanity.

Aubergines were thus, like some other vegetables, initially considered ornamental plants in Europe, but soon gained popularity as food in southern Europe. They are documented in cultivation around 500 BC in India and Burma. The white aubergines are believed to be the oldest cultivated forms. In India, Burma, and China, mentions of light or white varieties can be found in ancient texts, as early as the 5th century.
They are still called "eggplants" in English because they resembled… chicken eggs!
It was the Arabs who discovered it in the Middle Ages and brought it from Asia, likely from India in the 15th century. They named it "al-bâdinjân", introduced it into the Mediterranean basin, and quickly adopted it through their trade with the Arab world. The aubergine passed through North Africa, then Spain, and into other Maghreb countries. However, it was the Italians who truly popularized it in the 19th century. It would henceforth be more consumed in Spain and Italy, as well as in Greece. The aubergine would not appear in markets in northern France until the mid-19th century.

The aubergine remains widely consumed in the Middle East, where it is the star of iconic dishes like baba ghanoush in Lebanon, or Imam bayildi in Turkey, for example. In Turkey, where aubergine jam is a specialty, it is also consumed sweet, and in Andalusia, cooked with honey as a dish, the aubergine regains its status as a fruit, as botanically it is indeed one.
The aubergine is now among the top 7 most cultivated vegetables in the world, with over 60 million tonnes produced annually. The global production of aubergine is primarily Chinese and Indian, with China accounting for about 63% of global production and India about 24%. It remains predominantly consumed in Asia. Today, there are no fewer than 341 varieties of aubergines listed in the official catalogue!

The Carrot

Iran is credited with a developed culture of the carrot (Daucus carota), but it is in Afghanistan that it is said to have appeared in the 10th century, quite recently in fact. It was initially produced in Europe, mainly in Spain, and crossing the Pyrenees, it arrived in France, then in Italy in the 14th century.

Yellow, white, and red carrots, ancestors of the orange carrot, delighted the royal tables of Europe in this colour until the Renaissance. Like other vegetables or fruits that gradually changed colour, the carrot originally had whitish hues. It was the Dutch who, in the 17th century, through numerous hybridizations, transformed this pale carrot into an increasingly orange one.

We now find yellow and purple carrots on the stalls, a curious turnaround! Fashion and trends...

The Artichoke

The artichoke (Cynara scolymus), a symbol of Brittany for us, originates... from the Mediterranean basin, specifically North Africa. It is nothing other than a domesticated wild thistle! It was probably already consumed in antiquity by the Egyptians and the Berbers, in its wild form, the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus).

It is from this species that the cultivated artichoke is obtained through selection. It reached Italy in the 1st century under the Roman Empire, where it was mainly used, like in Greece, for its medicinal properties. It was during the Renaissance, around 1644, that it was truly popularized and cultivated in aristocratic gardens, particularly in Naples and Sicily. It was then credited with digestive and even aphrodisiac virtues. It appeared in France thanks to Catherine de Medici, who introduced it into royal gardens in the 16th century. Louis XIV adored this vegetable… La Quintinie cultivated five different varieties.

It was not until the early 19th century that the artichoke became popular, thanks to the creation of the famous large Camus de Bretagne. It thus became a significant market gardening crop in Brittany, Provence, and the Loire Valley. There are several varieties, such as the Gros vert de Laon, the purple artichoke of Provence, or the poivrade—which appeared later—a small tender variety often consumed raw or in oil. The artichoke remains an emblematic vegetable of Mediterranean cuisine, found stuffed, in barigoule, or à la romaine.

Italy, Spain, and Egypt are now among the three main producers of artichokes in the world, far ahead of France.

The "New Vegetables"

While we often think that all our vegetables are ancient, some have only recently appeared in our gardens and on our stalls, particularly with food globalization, the rise of organic produce, and new consumption habits (gluten-free, vegetarianism).

Among the vegetables that have recently arrived in our gardens and markets are exotic vegetables, but not only...

The chayote (or christophine), a cucurbit from Central America, widely used in Caribbean and Reunionese cuisines, now well acclimatized and cultivated in France, in the mild Atlantic zone or in the south.
Kale – making a comeback since the 2010s, a star of health diets. It is now widely cultivated in urban, organic, and alternative gardens.
Romanesco arrived in our markets in the 1990s.
Sweet potato: it was rare just 30 years ago and is now ubiquitous in markets, even cultivated in the southwest of France. Some varieties are adapted to the French climate.
The yacon (earth pear): Originating from South America, it is still marginal but is entering organic circuits and AMAPs (Associations for the Maintenance of Peasant Agriculture). Its taste is sweet, similar to that of the Jerusalem artichoke.

Also added to this list is black radish, an ancient vegetable rehabilitated by modern cuisine and wellness trends. Long relegated to herbalism, it is now reappearing in winter salads and detox plates. These vegetables reflect the plant renaissance of the 21st century, between exoticism and culinary innovations.

We are also witnessing the rediscovery of forgotten vegetables such as chervis, orache, helianthi, crosne, or even cardoon, and herbs like wild garlic, often revived by chefs or organic gardens.

21st-century agriculture has also seen the emergence of hybrid or cross-bred vegetables, such as broccolini (a cross between broccoli and kai-lan), or kalette (kale + Brussels sprouts), reflecting our growing taste for plant innovation, but also the need to adapt to new climatic conditions.

These Vegetables That Might Never Have Existed!

Finally, there are also vegetables that never came to be... and those that could have remained unknown in Europe.
We will thus try to consume the tuber of the Dahlia, brought to France in 1802 from Mexico via Spain. This plant was cultivated, used decoratively in floral tiaras, but also consumed by the Aztecs for centuries. Botanist André Thouin thought he could use it here, somewhat like the potato, as the tuber had a floury consistency. But its peppery taste did not appeal to the testers of the time, and thus it was relegated from 1804 (to our great happiness) as the only ornamental plant!

Some of the vegetables we cherish today almost didn't make it into our kitchens. The potato and the tomato are good examples; the former long deemed unfit for consumption, indigestible, only good for feeding animals, and supposedly transmitting the plague, while the latter retained its image as a toxic plant for a long time. It was only adopted by the French from 1731, and by the Germans even later, around 1870. These plants, labelled as poisonous, were also the fate of some fruits, but we will return to this in a future article.