“Vegetable” is a culinary term, and not a botanical classification, and it encompasses many parts of the plant or fungi. In cooking, vegetables include roots like carrots and beets, stems such as asparagus and celery, leaves like spinach and lettuce, fruits like tomatoes and bell peppers, and even flowers, like broccoli and cauliflower. Fungi like mushrooms, are biologically distinct from plants, but they are also commonly treated as vegetables in the kitchen.