Eat More Green - In Any Colour Quiz

Answer: Avocado

Guacamole is a Mexican sauce made out of avocados.
A typical recipe for four persons uses three avocados, the juice of a lime, a tablespoon of salt, half a cup diced onions , three table spoons of cilantro (coriander), two diced Roma tomatoes and a teaspoon of minced garlic. Mash the avocados, sprinkle with the lime juice and add salt. Add the other ingredients and put in the refrigerator for one hour.
Alternative recipes are available, including a recipe with asparagus.
Avocados have a dark green skin and a light green texture. Adding the lime juice will deepen the light green colour.

Answer: Scorzonera

All of these are vegetables that once were quite popular, but have almost disappeared in the 1980's.
Scorzonera (and specifically the Scorzonera hispanica) is what we're looking for. You may cook them and serve in a béchamel sauce or a butter sauce (typically with vinegar and egg yolk).
Cleaning fresh scorzonera is a fiendish task. If you'd ever be tempted to take on this kitchen nightmare, be sure to wear disposable rubber gloves - you may never get them pure again.
Luckily there are some food industries that pack cleansed scorzonera in glass jars, so you can enjoy them without having to redecorate your kitchen and to replace each and every garment you wore when cleansing them... (Well, I have exaggerated things a bit, but don't wear a white chemise when cleansing scorzonera).
Scorzonera has a similar taste to celery root.
For those who wonder: topinambour is a tuber very similar in appearance to potatoes, and tastes a bit sweeter than potatoes. Rutabaga is a root from the cabbage family, white at the bottom and reddish-purple at the top. It is now commonly used to feed cattle. Pastinaca is a root similar in form to carrots, but more whitish. They taste a bit sweeter than carrots, too.

Answer: Aubergine

Ratatouille typically contains tomatoes, garlic, bell pepper, courgette (aka zucchini), aubergine (aka eggplant) and onion.
The typical purple colour comes from the aubergine (In America known as eggplant). Ratatouille is made typically with the long, slender, purple varieties of the aubergine. To be complete, I'll have to admit that there are also yellow and even white aubergines, but these are quite rare.
The bell peppers used in ratatouille can be the green, yellow or red variety. Sometimes two or three different colours are used. By the way, orange, white, brown or purple bell peppers do also exist.
The onions involved are typically white or yellow onions. Slices of red onion could sometimes be used as a garniture.
Ratatouille is usually made with fresh cloves of garlic, mostly the white variety. Garlic also exists in the purple (or purple striped) variety.
When thinking of tomatoes, one is tempted to see a red colour. And indeed red tomatoes are the most cultivated, and are those typically used in ratatouille. But there are yellow, green and orange tomatoes, and even white, pink, ivory or purple ones.
Courgette (in America and in Scandinavia named zucchini) is a squash variety, typically dark green. Rare varieties are yellow or orange.

Answer: Physalis

Physalis is the berry we're looking for. Occasionally this fruit is also named ground cherry. It is about the size of a large cherry or a medium strawberry. Out of more than seventy varieties, the Physalis peruviana (cape gooseberry) is the most used for decoration. The taste is sweet and a little tart.
Physalis is related to the nightshade family, which also contains tomatoes and potatoes.
Litchis have a white interior and a spiny pink or reddish skin.
Carambola is a yellow fruit with sharp indentations. The cross section is star shaped.
Kumquat are ovoid orange fruits, belonging to the citrus family. These are served without their leaves.

Answer: Portobello mushroom

Portobello mushrooms are among the largest mushrooms. Several recipes use these giants among mushrooms and stuff them with cheese, bacon, artichoke, spinach or whatever.
Young Portobello are whitish in colour, but they turn brown when mature. It is the mature version that is commonly used to stuff. Portobello mushrooms can reach a diameter of four to six inches (ten to fifteen centimetres).
Stuffed vegetables are typically baked in an oven.
When stuffing vegetables, you need vegetables that are large enough and that have a sufficient consistency when baked. Stuffed mushrooms, stuffed tomatoes or stuffed bell peppers are quite common dishes.
On the contrary, Enokitake are way too small to stuff. Neither the spinach leaves nor the outer part of the Brussels sprouts offer a sufficient solidity to stuff.

Answer: Tomato

Béarnaise sauce is made with egg yolks, vinegar, shallots, water, tarragon (which accounts for the specific taste), and butter. Optional ingredients include parsley, chervil, salt and pepper, lemon juice and white wine.
Choron sauce is a derivative of Béarnaise sauce, with tomato added (and sometimes without the fresh tarragon). Whilst most recipes use tomato puree, I'm quite convinced one can use fresh tomatoes as well - it would only take a bit more time to cook.
The red herrings (although they are neither red neither fishy) would give interesting combinations with béarnaise sauce, but these combinations are too rare to have their own name.

Answer: Banana split

You may have deciphered that I'd like some vanilla ice with chocolate sauce and a banana. These are the main ingredients of a Banana Split: serve a whole banana (peeled, of course) with vanilla ice and hot chocolate sauce. You can top it off with whipped cream.
If the waiter comes and serves you your Banana Split, you'll notice the banana has an ivory-white colour. Indeed: the interior of the banana is differently coloured from the skin. The banana skin starts green, becomes yellow when the fruit is ripe, and turns into brown or even black as the fruit gets too ripe.
Pêche Melba contains vanilla ice, peaches, and raspberry (or strawberry). No chocolate sauce is involved.
The Coupe Tropical is another ice dessert without any chocolate. There are various recipes, but most contain vanilla ice (sometimes combined with fruit sherbets) and an assortment of tropical fruits: mango, pineapple, banana, coconut,...
Black Forest is an ice cream dessert based upon the traditional Schwarzwaldtorte. The main ingredients are cherries and chocolate ice.

Answer: Blueberry pie

Blueberries are translated into French as "des myrtilles".
In this quiz on differently coloured fruits and vegetables, I had very few options for the blue colour. But just asking "which berries are blue?" would be too much a giveaway. So I chose to induce you to some French translations - it might always come in handy if you travel to French speaking countries.
Oddly enough, the myrtille (French name) corresponds biologically to a different species of plant, as the blueberry (Vaccinium cyanococcus) is not native to Europe. The European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is similar in appearance and in taste, and its English name bilberry would make most cooks hesitate.
Blackberries (the fruit, not the handheld electronic devices) are known in French as "des mûres".
Raspberries are "des framboises" and strawberries translate to "des fraises".

Answer: Asparagus

It's the asparagus we're looking for, and more specifically the white asparagus harvested in the late springtime. The shape reminds people of the male genital organ, and this is the reason why asparagus is frequently listed as one of the aphrodisiac foods.
Asparagus have a quite distinctive flavour. Various sulphur compounds that are hardly digested, can cause the urine of the asparagus consumer to give off a very specific smell.
In Europe, the asparagus season is from late April (sources indicate April 23rd, St George's day) until late June (typically June 24th, St John's day). During this period, many restaurants have several asparagus dishes on the menu.
Normally the asparagus plant gives off green shoots, but if one keeps the shoot covered with soil until harvesting, it will turn out white and taste slightly different. White asparagus needs more peeling, but continental European gourmets prefer the white shoots over the green ones. In the UK it is usually the other way around.
Sometimes you could also find purplish asparagus tips. These result from the white asparagus just breaking through the ground one or two days before harvesting.
The yard long bean (also known as cowpea) is light green in colour. Celery is an ivory-coloured stalk with green leaves. Most commercially cultivated carrots have an orange colour, but yellow carrots are quite easy to find. Rarely you'll enjoy purple or white carrots.

Answer: Apple

The term "pink lady" in the food and drink category can either signify some cocktail or a variety of apple. The apple has a typical reddish-pink blush, although it is not wholly pink. Usually the front side of the apple has the typical reddish-pink hue, while the backside is yellow-green as the Golden Delicious.
Australian cultivars have crossed two types of apple, namely the Golden Delicious and the Lady Williams, and named the result "Pink Lady".
"Pink Lady" is in fact a trade mark. The apples which would carry this name, have to meet certain standards as to colour, sweetness and firmness.