Many people grow vegetables in their small gardens by using their seeds. They are rich in vitamins and antioxidants that improve the immune system and reduce the risk of diseases.
What Vegetables Have Seeds? Many vegetables have seeds, including eggplant, squash, and okra, as they are plant fruits. Some are edible and present in the pod-like green peas and beans called legumes. Moreover, tomato capsicum and cucumber contain multiple tiny seeds that are difficult to count. Furthermore, these seeds are in flat, cube, round, and kidney-shaped structures in varying colors like white, yellow, and brown.
Different types of vegetables are present with or without seeds that can be consumed as a whole, or toxic seeds are removed from a few of them.
Why do vegetables have seeds?
You can see tiny hard structures inside the vegetables that are commonly used in the kitchen, like tomatoes, which contain many seeds within a pulpy material.
These are produced in the fruit of the plant after pollination when the pollens find their way to reach the ovary.
A few species of vegetables are produced after vegetative reproduction, but most have gone through pollination, leading to fruit production in the plant.
Furthermore, they are produced as a result of fertilization when the pollen grain fertilizes the eggs and forms an endosperm cell. This cell provides nutrition to the fruit and leads to its maturity.
Examples of vegetables with seeds
Many vegetables have seeds that have passed through the pollination stage and form fruit. These are considered as fruits due to the presence of tiny granules, but they are not sweet.
Green beans
They are a staple in home gardens due to their manageable growth. In addition, you can grow them in the spring season to avoid the damage due to frost in winter.
Their seeds are present inside the pod and arranged in symmetry. The pods contain kidney-shaped grains, cubic, round and flat structures in varying colors like purple, red, white, or green.
Moreover, they belong to a leguminous family, and you can find almost 6 to 15 beans inside a single pod.
Likewise, mung beans and kidney beans have green-colored pods with green and red beans of cube-shaped and kidney-shaped structures.
Eggplant
You can see multiple tiny seeds embedded inside the fruit of an eggplant. This plant takes almost 2.5 to 3.5 months to produce fruit after germination.
They appear in a whitish or yellowish shade that can quickly turn brown when the fruit is cut. This is because the whole fruit changes its color into brown due to oxidation, which causes enzymatic browning.
They can be slightly bitter to consume, but this taste can be reduced by cooking them correctly.
Furthermore, it is difficult to count their number in the fruit, but they are more in number in the oval-shaped eggplants than the round ones.
Squash
It is a vegetable that is a fruit of a plant with a bright color. Moreover, its taste is mild and sweet, making it suitable for recipes.
You cannot eat it as raw food; its pulp is used in many recipes to give a savory flavor.
Their seeds appear white when not ripened, but their color changes to cream or brown after ripening.
According to a rough estimation, you can get almost 30 to 100 seeds from one squash, as this number can vary according to the size of the fruit.
Okra
It is a pod-like fruit, as you can see in green peas, with a hairy end. It appears green in color, but the seeds appear whitish when you cut the pod into two halves.
It is obtained in a plant fruit form, confirmed by the presence of oval-shaped hard structures inside the fruit. So they are visible in the pod that it is not possible to count and turn into dark colors later.
Additionally, almost 80 to 100 seeds are usually present in one okra pod, around 8 to 9 inches long. It takes 45 to 60 days to grow after germination and becomes a mature plant.
Tomato
It is the most commonly used fruit in kitchens, is considered a vegetable, and contains many seeds.
They are 1/4 to 1/8 inches in size and have a coarse texture and elongated shape. Moreover, they have a light brown color after dried and appear beige when present inside the fruit.
The whole fruit takes almost 1 to 2 months to develop. Furthermore, you can get fruit quickly by maintaining the external temperature at 72 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Capsicum and chili
Large capsicum or small chilies have multiple seeds inside the fruit and appear in a block or a pointed shape. They look compressed orbicular in shape and are red, yellow, or even green
Moreover, they are juicy and spicy fruits in yellow, red, orange, and green colors. They are almost 2 to 4mm in diameter and non-toxic, making them ideal for consumption.
Furthermore, depending on their size, you can get around 50 to 200 seeds in one capsicum or chili.
Cucumber
Cucumbers are widely used in salads due to their refreshing color and health benefits. Green cucumbers with many cylindrical grains inside the pulpy material.
They appear in white, yellowish, or even orange color. They are almost 2 to 3 cm in diameter and embedded in the center of the light-greenish flesh.
Furthermore, they can grow well at 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and each mature fruit of average length can contain almost 150 to 220 seeds.
Pumpkin
Pumpkins are commonly grown in America and used to prepare soups and desserts. You can see multiple seeds in the center of the fruit after cutting it into two halves.
They appear white from the outside as the husk color is whitish, but they are green, having an asymmetrical oval shape. Raw seeds have a chewy texture and are 16 to 17 mm long.
Moreover, they have high fiber content and are used as a snack. A medium size pumpkin can have 300 to 450 seeds roughly.
Do carrots and potatoes have seeds?
Some vegetables can be grown without seeds as they employ a method of vegetative reproduction in which there is no sexual reproduction or pollination.
They are only produced after the fertilization of eggs by the pollens that can make some vegetables devoid of these small granules-like structures.
Additionally, most vegetables are obtained from the plant’s roots, stems, and leaves. For example, carrots are obtained from plants’ roots and grow in the ground.
In the same way, potato tubers are used to produce new potatoes and are considered seed pieces. They grow by vegetative reproduction, and the new plant grows from a small portion of the parent plant.
So, you cannot find such granular structures in the carrots and potatoes as they are not the plant’s fruit obtained from the roots and grow under the ground.
Furthermore, turnips, beets, garlic, onion, mint, and celery are also obtained from a region other than fruit.
Do vegetables have edible seeds?
Most vegetable seeds are not toxic to health and can be consumed to obtain nutrition. Most commonly, you can see green beans and peas that are used in different dishes.
Additionally, eggplant, okra, cucumber, and tomato are consumed as a whole fruit without discarding their seeds as they are not bad for health.
Such vegetables are usually known as legumes, as you can consume whole fruit. Furthermore, you can use chili and capsicum as whole fruit in the recipes without removing them, as they add a spicy taste to dishes.
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