Give Peas a Chance Trivia Quiz

Answer: Potatoes

How much can one say about the potato? Perhaps one of the most versatile tubers in existence, some of my favourite dishes are made with potatoes (French fries, chips - and even some of the healthy ones!). Of course, the example in the question was that of 'mashed potatoes'.

Potatoes have become more and more popular around the globe as time has passed. According to the Wikipedia page on the potato, the first decade of the 21st century saw a global average of 33 Kg (73 lbs) consumed per person per year!

The term 'potato' as used in English originated with the Spanish 'patata'; some other names for the 'spud' in other cultures include: kartoffel (German), pomme de terre (French), brambor (Czech), and ziemniak (Polish) - just to give you a 'taste' (sorry, bad pun).

Answer: Beets

Perhaps the most recognizable of the beet family are the fleshy dark red roots that we also know as beetroot or garden beet. That was what I had in mind in the question, as the poor beets were (yummily) pickled. Other colours do exist in beets, although the majority of them are shades of red.

Other types of beets that are cultivated for consumption are sugar beets (used in the production of table sugar), chard (which has a beet-like root but is cultivated for the leaves), and mangel (used for animal feed (mangelwurzel)).

Answer: Rhubarb

Because it is used in a way similar to fruit, rhubarb is not often thought of as a vegetable, but it is! By Free Online Dictionary definition, a fruit is "the ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant, together with accessory parts, containing the seeds and occurring in a wide variety of forms". Rhubarb stalks don't contain seeds.

That said, rhubarb falls within that kind of vague area that make it an either/or kind of food; it's a vegetable that is used like a fruit - sort of like the tomato, which is used like a vegetable but fits the definition of a fruit.

I like rhubarb pie.

Answer: Broccoli

Broccoli is part of the cabbage family, but thankfully doesn't taste anything like cabbage (don't get me wrong - I love cabbage rolls and coleslaw, but I personally prefer broccoli with melted cheese!). Broccoli, when broken up into it's individual sprouting branches, looks like little trees. I remember my days as a child when my parents would coax broccoli into me by saying that I was eating whole trees!

The word 'broccoli' is the plural of the Italian word 'broccolo', which refers to 'the flowering head of a cabbage'. Commonly steamed (as in the question) or boiled, broccoli are also often found served uncooked as part of veggie platters, usually with a dip of some kind.

Answer: Cabbages

Cabbage is related to the aforementioned broccoli, as well as cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Cabbage comes most commonly in three colours: green, purple, and white. They can range anywhere from one to eight pounds (1/2 Kg to 3 1/2 Kg) in weight. Most importantly, they can come in such wonderful arrangements as cabbage rolls, coleslaw, bubbles and squeak, and (as I grew up knowing it) rotkohl (cooked red cabbage).

Answer: Corn

Corn is another one of those vegetables that kind of cross the line by virtue of its use. Technically a grain, corn (or maize) has a number of uses, including as a feed crop for livestock, and as a fuel (ethanol). I, personally, prefer its sweet corn variant, used primarily for human consumption. Nothing quite beats fresh 'peaches and cream' corn on the cob in the summer.

Maize has become one of the most widely-grown crops in North America, with hundreds of millions of metric tonnes grown yearly.

Answer: Onions

There are many types of onions within the Allium genus, but what most people think of as simply 'onions' are within the Allium cepa species. Onions can be used as a main dish on their own, but they are more commonly used to accentuate the flavour of other foods, or to act as a secondary part of other dishes.

And, of course, the onion acts as a wonderful metaphor for depth (onions come in layers).

Answer: Carrots

One well-known way to prepare carrots is called 'Carrots Julienne'. It is essentially as described in the question, the shaping of foods into long, thin, matchstick-shaped slices. Other types of food most commonly made by julienning are celery (for the dish Céléris Remoulade), and potatoes (Julienne Fries).

The taproot is not the only edible part of the carrot; the leafy part can as well. Mind you, it doesn't taste nearly as good (especially in comparison to other leafy vegetables), and is rarely used for human consumption.

Answer: Garlic

Garlic also falls within the Allium genus, along with onions, but these are called Allium sativum. Evidence of garlic use (both for cooking and in medicine) goes back for thousands of years. More recent times have also found them to be good for the repelling of vampires!

Personally, I like a good garlic sausage on my breath when I go vampire hunting (Or if I want to prevent my wife from making me watch "Twilight").

Answer: Peas

Finally, the peas get their chance to be the answer to a question! Peas are ANOTHER one of those vegetables that straddle the line between fruit and vegetable. Technically, peas are a seed within the pod, which is the fruit of the pea plant.

Regardless of definitions, peas are tasty - one of my favourite dishes is split pea soup. They are commonly paired with carrots (especially in frozen produce), are famously made into "pease porridge" (like the nursery rhyme), and in Southeastern Asia, are dried and salted and eaten as snack food.

Perhaps most famously, the pea pod was studied by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century, providing the beginnings of modern genetic science.

I think those peas got their chance and ran with it!