This large group of vegetables contains principally water and mineral salts.

Artichokes

Jerusalem Globe

Asparagus Broccoli Brussels sprouts

Cabbage

White Red

Cardoon

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celeriac

Celery

Collards

Cucumbers and Christophines

Dandelions

Dock shoots

Egg plant

Gherkin

Horseradish

Kale

Kohl-rabi

Martynia

Okra

Onions

Peppers

Radishes

Ruta-baga

Savoy

Scullions

Spinach

Summer squash

Swiss chard

Tomatoes

Vegetable marrow

They include many parts of plants, as shoots, leaves, stalks, stems and roots. They are valuable articles of food, not because they contain nourishment, but for the mineral salts and waste material they give to the daily bill of fare, They are the most important foods in cases of chronic constipation; if well cooked and used daily, they will cure even obstinate cases. They are far more valuable than fruits, unless fruits are eaten alone.

The object of cooking non-starchy vegetables, is to soften the fibre and make them more easy of digestion. Green vegetables unless carefully cooked, easily part with their salts in cooking, and become unsightly, unpalatable and useless as food.

All green vegetables should be soaked before cooking in cold water without salt; salt wilts them. The common turnip, an admirable succulent vegetable, sightly, palatable and appetizing if daintily cooked, is nine out of ten times ruined in the cooking. Raw cabbage, finely shaved and soaked in cold water, is digested in two and a half hours; after it passes through the hands of the average cook it requires five hours for digestion. When stewed carefully requires but three hours.

The water in Which vegetables are cooked is rich in salts and mineral matter; if thrown away the best part of the vegetable is lost.

Green vegetables lend themselves most easily to the combination of milk for making cream soups; the milk contains the needed nourishment, and is made palatable by the flavoring of the vegetables. These soups form an admirable luncheon or supper dish for children.

Among the best cream soups are potato, pea, celery and cream of corn.

In cases of chronic constipation, onions, carrots, stewed cucumbers, spinach and kale are best.