Perennial fruits eaten as vegetables

[TheVeggieProfessor]

There's a lot of tropical perennial green leafies out there, but what about perennial alternatives to the wide array of fruits eaten as vegetables? A few come to mind: sesbania pods, tindora, and chayote. You can throw green jackfruit, green papaya, and avocados in there as well I suppose, but those are obvious. What are some perennial fruit vegetables (for lack of a better term) that you know of or have experience with?

[Galatians522]

Green bananas or plantains, winged bean, Mexican sour gherkin, and pigeon pea. Also, Eggplant and peppers are technically short lived perenials. Green mango is used like a vegetable in some Asian cooking. I have also read that opuntia fruits (presumably immature) can be pickled like a gherkin but have no experience personally to verify this.

[ahayastani]

Giant granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis), cassabanana (Sicana odorifera, locally called melocotón).

[mornigstar]

fruit

[norris]

I haven't eaten all these, but I'm trying / want to try:

Malabar gourd, Cucurbita ficifolia - immature fruit as summer squash
Wi apple, Spondias dulcis - immature fruit as pickles
Tonkin jasmine, Telosma cordata - Wikipedia says "The top, fruit and flowers can all be consumed as vegetables."
If we're counting young bean pods, we can add lablab and perhaps lima and Clitoria ternatea and Bauhinia purpurea and Leucaena leucocephala and Parkia speciosa to Galatians522's winged bean and pigeon pea.
Katuk, Sauropus androgynus
Joint fir, Gnetum gnemon
West African okra, Abelmoschus callei is supposed to be perennial, as is the "Nkruma tenten" variety of A. esculentus. I think bele/edible hibiscus, Abelmoschus manihot, can also make okra-like pods.
Whatever perennial mallow species can grow in the tropics should make the edible cheese wheels. We had one Malva parviflora (I believe) here.
Immature fruits of some other Artocarpus species can be eaten similar to green jackfruit, I think.
Moringa pods
Many people use starfruit as a tomato-esque veggie. (And perhaps bilimbi?)
Akee, Blighia sapida may qualify as a vegetable?
Eggplant grafted onto turkeyberry, Solanum torvum, is pretty reliably perennial.
Gboma eggplant, Solanum macrocarpon

Fun exercise!

[strom]

Clitoria ternatea

Are butterfly pea beans/pods edible?  I thought they were toxic, only the flowers were safe to eat / steep in water to brew.  Or maybe I mixed it up with the Sweet Pea plant (which are grown for the aroma).

[norris]

Clitoria ternatea

Are butterfly pea beans/pods edible?  I thought they were toxic, only the flowers were safe to eat / steep in water to brew.  Or maybe I mixed it up with the Sweet Pea plant (which are grown for the aroma).

I haven't tried them yet, but PROSEA says "In the Philippines young pods are eaten as a vegetable." And Permacopia volume III says "Immature pods (up to 2/3rds grown) may be cooked like green beans."

[MadFarm]

Luffa can grow as a perennial down here and is delicious when harvested early. We use papaya green and jackfruit.

[norris]

Luffa can grow as a perennial down here and is delicious when harvested early.

Cool! I hadn't seen or heard of them perennializing. How many years have you seen them live? Any special strain or cultivation tips?

[MadFarm]

Mine made it through winter in a protected spot and continued to take over eveyrthing once our cold was gone I had to cut it. I have seen others on youtube grow as perennials and gave seeds to a friend who has a vine going on 2 years. Im not sure on the varieties as I ordered seeds from amazon then propogated from the seeds of the fruit. They love compost and water and get out of control in the warm weather. Stink bugs love them but mine were resistant to vineborers.

[Satya]

winged bean is perennial here, they die out for the winter but resprout once the rains begin. I heard that tubers are also edible but I don't kill the vines. They produce pretty well for me in FL, lots of flowers and pods.