Foods That Start With V: A Kid-Friendly List

The easiest foods that start with V for kids are vanilla yogurt or ice cream, Valencia oranges, vegetable soup, vermicelli noodles and veggie burgers. For a longer list, real V foods also include Vidalia onions, Vitelotte potatoes, venison, veal, vinegar, verjuice, Vegemite, vichyssoise, vindaloo, varenyky, vada pav, vol-au-vents, vatrushka and Victoria sponge. V leans on “vegetable” and “vanilla” for the easy wins, and on European and Indian cooking for the interesting ones.

Everything below is a real food with a short line on what it is, grouped so a child looking for “a V fruit” can find one quickly.

V fruits and flavors

• Valencia orange — A sweet orange variety that became the most popular juice orange in the US. Despite the Spanish name, it was developed in southern California in the mid-1800s and named after the famous oranges of Valencia, Spain. Expect a few seeds.
• Vanilla — A spice that comes from the seed pods of an orchid, and a seed pod is botanically a fruit. Most kids meet it as a flavor in yogurt, ice cream, pudding and baking.

V vegetables

• Vidalia onion — A sweet onion that can only carry the Vidalia name if it’s grown in a production area in Georgia defined by law. Sweeter than ordinary onions, which makes it a good one for kids who pick out onion.
• Vitelotte potato — A French potato variety with blue-violet skin and flesh, grown in France since at least the early 1800s. Mashed, it turns a startling purple, which tends to get a table’s attention.
• Vegetable anything — Vegetable soup, vegetable lasagna, vegetable fried rice. The word gives you a V dish in any cuisine, and a five-year-old will accept it.

V proteins

• Venison — Deer meat. Usually stewed, roasted or made into burgers.
• Veal — The meat of calves, as opposed to beef from older cattle.
• Veggie burger — A patty made from beans, grains or vegetables. A reliable V dinner for the whole family.

V dishes from around the world

• Vermicelli — Thin noodles. The original is a thin Italian pasta, and the name travels: in the Arab world it’s toasted in butter and added to rice, in South Asia it’s cooked with milk, and “rice vermicelli” means thin rice noodles.
• Vichyssoise — A smooth soup of puréed leeks, potatoes, onions and cream, served chilled with chives. It was created in the early 1900s by Louis Diat, the French-born head chef of the Ritz-Carlton in New York.
• Varenyky — Ukrainian dumplings made from unleavened dough, with sweet or savory fillings; potato is the most traditional. Close cousins of Polish pierogi, with a thinner, softer dough.
• Vada pav — A vegetarian street food from Maharashtra, India: a spiced, deep-fried potato dumpling inside a soft bread bun.
• Vindaloo — A curry best known in its British restaurant form as a very hot dish. Its name comes from the Portuguese-Goan dish carne de vinha d’alhos, meat in wine and garlic. Strictly for grown-ups and brave teenagers.
• Vol-au-vent — A small, hollow case of puff pastry with a filling. A classic party food.
• Vatrushka — An Eastern European pastry: a ring of dough with sweet white farmer’s cheese (tvorog) in the middle, sometimes with raisins or fruit.

V sweets and condiments

• Victoria sponge — A classic British layer cake of butter sponge, sandwiched with jam.
• Vanilla pudding and vanilla ice cream — The most reliable V on this list.
• Vinegar — The sour liquid made by fermenting alcohol, used in dressings and pickles.
• Verjuice — A very sour juice pressed from unripe grapes or other sour fruit, used in cooking to add sourness.
• Vegemite — A thick, dark brown Australian spread made from brewers’ yeast extract, eaten on toast and crackers. Strong-tasting; scrape it on thinly.

Which V foods work for small children?

For toddlers and preschoolers the soft options are easy: vanilla yogurt, vegetable soup, well-cooked vermicelli cut short, mashed Vitelotte potatoes, and pieces of peeled Valencia orange.

Round, firm or chunky foods need a little work. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ choking prevention guidance lists raw fruit chunks and chunks of meat among the foods to avoid or modify for young children, and suggests cutting food into pieces no larger than half an inch. So orange segments get cut small, venison and veal are shredded or finely chopped, and noodles are cut into short pieces. The same guidance asks that children sit down to eat, which is worth remembering with finger foods like vol-au-vents and vada pav at a party.

Two V foods to hold back: vindaloo for its heat, and Vegemite for its salt. The AAP’s toddler snack guidance recommends avoiding added sodium and sugar until age 2, and a salty yeast spread is exactly the kind of thing that applies to.

A V plate for letter-of-the-week

1. A thermos of vegetable soup — about the easiest school-friendly V there is.
2. Valencia orange pieces, peeled and cut small.
3. Vanilla yogurt with a spoon.
4. For a treat day, a small square of Victoria sponge.

If you’d rather not pack soup, our no-cook school lunch ideas are built for mornings with no time at the stove. And if the whole alphabet is on the go, foods that start with J and foods that start with Q are ready too.

FAQ

What is a fruit that starts with V?

The Valencia orange is the easiest to find. Vanilla also counts botanically, since it comes from the seed pod of an orchid.

What is a vegetable that starts with V?

The Vidalia onion, a sweet onion from Georgia, and the Vitelotte potato, a purple French variety. “Vegetable soup” is the easy answer for younger kids.

What is a snack that starts with V?

Vanilla yogurt, a few pieces of Valencia orange, veggie sticks with dip for older kids, or a vanilla wafer on a treat day.

What dinner starts with V?

Veggie burgers, vegetable lasagna, vermicelli noodle bowls, venison stew and varenyky are all full V dinners.

Is Vegemite the same as Marmite?

No, though they’re similar. Both are yeast-based spreads, but Vegemite is an Australian brand and Marmite is British.