The 2026 Vegetable Championship

Today I'm happy to announce the results of the 2026 Vegetable Championship.

This single-elimination tournament featured 64 vegetables and near-vegetables (i.e., for our purposes here we went with tomato as a vegetable). A number of beans also ended up on the bracket to fill out some space. Initial placements within the bracket were determined randomly. Around seven votes were cast per vegetable face-off, voted on a whiteboard in my office.

There were no pre-determined criteria for how one should vote. One person may have voted due to preference of taste while another person voted based on versatility of the veggie across many dishes.

The initial pool of vegetables turned out quite diverse, featuring classics like broccoli, uncommon veggies like parsnips, and a handful of esoteric ones like kohlrabi. Overall the tournament covers a broad range of the typical western diet.

The irony does not escape me that in our tournament of vegetables, it came down to a battle of starches: potato vs. sweet potato. Potato packs quite a punch, when you consider mashed potatoes, fried potato, potato starch, potato soup, cubed potato in stews.... It has certainly earned its victory. I do wish that some of the healthy green veggies made it further in the bracket, though.

The relative merits of onion, tomato, and garlic were debated very heavily in the office. These ended up fighting against each other for a spot in the semi-finals. Tomato beat out onion, which surpised me; I had figured since onion went in so many dishes, it would've carried this fight. In the end, tomato took the win and only lost to potato for the championship seat.

Corn got beat very early by an unfortunate seeding next to garlic. That's a tough break. I think corn could have definitely gone further with a little more luck early on.

I've got two major gripes. Chickpea vs. sweet potato, for me at least, would be chickpea every time. I love chickpeas. They are a great neutral bean if you need to add protein to a meal. Plus you get hummus from chickpeas. My other disagreement is with the sweet potato v. bell pepper matchup. Although sweet potato was the victor here, I think bell pepper is a great addition to most meals. Onion + bell pepper + garlic is the starting formula to many dishes I make. I eat bell pepper way more often than I have sweet potato, so this match seemed like a bit of an upset.

Otherwise I'm not too surprised by the rest of the results. Veggies like daikon, water cress, bamboo shoots, etc. just don't have the versatility or recognition that the veggies we see in our Sweet 16 have.

Anyways, congrats on the win, potato. I guess I'll roast some potato to celebrate.