Perennial vegetables that are not spinach substitutes?

[TheVeggieProfessor]

Much of the perennial vegetables for leafies. What about options that are more robust? Like something that can be used in cooking where a vegetable like broccoli would be used?

[Galatians522]

Asparagus, Winged bean, Chayote, Similax (new shoot tips eaten like asparagus), saccharum edule, palm hearts from many species.

[UnicornEmily]

I've been told Turkish rocket resembles a perennial broccoli.

And lovage resembles a perennial celery.

[Nicola!@#]

yacon, sweet potato,gynbura procumbens and crepioides (sorry spinach) rhubarb, mauka, perennial beans, taro, water chestnut,  arrowhead, hausa potato, pigeon pea, stachys affinis...

[pineislander]

Tindora cucumbers, spineless cactus nopales. Akee tree fruit is used as a vegetable. Green banana and plantain are staple carbohydrate crops many places.

[UnicornEmily]

It just occurred to me that no one's mentioned perennial root vegetables in this thread.  (The kind where you can harvest some of the tubers / roots / corms, ignore the rest, and have them sprout back the next year.)  Are you interested in a list of those?

[UnicornEmily]

Also: the book Perennial Vegetables, by Eric Toensmeier, is a treasure trove.  I found it fascinating and very exciting, and took lots of notes.

[Coconut Cream]

Maybe green papaya? Some culinary traditions use the unripe fruit as a vegetable. Green papaya salad would be one famous example.

Maybe casava as well? Not exactly a vegetable but it's calorie dense and very filling. I'm pretty sure you can harvest year round.

[Kada]

Sweet potato leaf, chayote foliage, birds nest ferns, asparagus,  etel nut flower, ipomoea aquatica,  moringa foliage come to mind

[khachaturian]

Betel nut flowers? Well, that's the first I hear of it... How is its taste?

[Kada]

They are excellent.  It's popular in Taiwan but a bit expensive.  It's from the areca palm, not the piper.

Need to use the very young, unopened flowers so aren't tough and fibrous.

Blanched and served cold is my favorite.  They are I guess somewhat like a non fibrous bamboo sprout and roughly McDonald's fries thickness.

Can be served hot as well.

Here's a Google image search using Mandarin.  If anyone visits Taiwan, refuse the mayonnaise like white sauce (it's sweet and disgusting) and make sure no chocolate sprinkles....it's gross and odd haha.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-m&sca_esv=dd138bd06aacfbd4&q=%E6%AA%B3%E6%A6%94%E8%8A%B1%E6%B2%99%E6%8B%89&udm=2&fbs=ABzOT_CWdhQLP1FcmU5B0fn3xuWpA-dk4wpBWOGsoR7DG5zJBsxayPSIAqObp_AgjkUGqel3rTRMIJGV_ECIUB00mupujJbyw82c7vlYBaFJu3BmNFvQfDVhKJQ4s1Sh56vUlZoIEANLUpN9VWlLGGfUrbnPf4CroKqpKXu_5-d0cQZFElQbvtvgwXC1ofYJ2QNIv1lZ0eE2MMkoY59UCQ2OiOpIoBVx1g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYkrLq_ZyLAxVEiK8BHTMyOMEQtKgLegQIDhAB&biw=134&bih=263&dpr=2.86#vhid=wGB-YiWqapTwPM&vssid=mosaic