During the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, China people ate five main vegetables. Sunflower, known as the "master of all kinds of vegetables", is now called winter cold sunflower or winter cold vegetable in some places, and winter sunflower in plant taxonomy. Because of its poor taste and nutrition, it was planted less and less in the Ming Dynasty and was no longer regarded as a vegetable. Hops, the main vegetable in the pre-Qin period, are the tender leaves of soybean seedlings, and are rarely used as vegetables now. It is a unique genus among ancient vegetables. Zhao Chuan in Han Dynasty recorded the production of onion and leek in Tai Park in greenhouse, and called the leek cultivated in this way "leek yellow". In addition, there are root vegetables such as radish and turnip, and many excellent radish varieties have been cultivated in Qin and Han Dynasties. Radish has the beauty of eating as early as Lu Chunqiu's original taste.
Now common vegetables are eggplant, cucumber, spinach, lentils, sword beans, etc., which were introduced from abroad from Wei, Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties. Eggplant originated in India and Thailand. Cucumber originated in India and was introduced to China later than eggplant. Originally called cucumber, this name is still preserved in some places. Spinach was introduced from Nepal (now Nepal) during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty. It was originally called Bolun cuisine, and later referred to as Bolun cuisine.
Since the Song Dynasty, vegetables have been planted and eaten more widely in China. The working people in ancient China not only imported from abroad, but also cultivated some extremely important vegetable varieties, such as water chestnut, Chinese cabbage, etc., and their vegetable planting techniques were also improved. Su Dongpo said in a poem: "The east wind is getting colder, and Artemisia annua tries spring vegetables." It can be seen that people can also eat fresh vegetables in spring.
Since the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, some varieties have been added to the recipes in China. Carrots originated in northern Europe and were introduced from Persia in the Yuan Dynasty. Although tomatoes were introduced into China from Europe, their ancestral home is Peru in South America. The original name of tomato is waves. When Peruvian aborigines first discovered it, they thought it was poisonous and dared not eat it. By the end of Qing Dynasty, all the traditional vegetable varieties existing in China had basically appeared.