Week 2 Prep: Vegetables
A hands-on exercise reading a vegetable's fat, protein and calorie content off the same USDA database this week's lecture cites, in grams rather than impressions.
1 March 2027
A vegetable’s contribution to a dish is a preparation decision measured in grams, not guessed from how substantial it looks on a plate — this week’s lecture covers where a vegetable is stored and why; this exercise covers what it is actually made of.
Exercise#
Pick a vegetable below and a quantity plausible for a dish — a handful of spinach, a diced potato, a sliced carrot — and read off its fat, protein and calorie content. Repeat with a second vegetable at the same quantity and compare the two: vegetables that look similarly substantial on a plate can differ by a factor of three or more in calorie density, for reasons unrelated to anything this week’s lecture covers about storage.
Macro calculator — Vegetables
Choose an ingredient and a quantity in grams. Fat, protein and calories are computed from USDA FoodData Central figures given per 100 g of the raw ingredient.
- Fat
- 0.4 g
- Protein
- 2.8 g
- Calories
- 34 kcal
Per 100 g figures: Broccoli, raw — USDA, Agricultural Research Service, FoodData Central, FDC ID 170379.
Note which USDA FoodData Central entry the figure came from — the calculator links to it directly — before switching to a different vegetable. This is the same reckoning the invent-a-recipe assignment (week 6) asks for, applied here to material this course has already handled.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- you can compute the fat, protein and calorie content of a stated quantity of at least one vegetable using this week's calculator
- you can name the USDA FoodData Central entry a chosen vegetable's figures come from
- you can compare two vegetables' calorie density and say, in one sentence, what the difference tracks (starch and water content, not fat or protein)