36 Foods That Start With A (Complete List by Category)

Foods that start with A cover just about every part of a meal — apples and avocados, almonds and anchovies, aioli and Alfredo sauce, plus dishes like Filipino adobo, Nigerian abacha and Cameroonian achu. This guide lists 36 foods beginning with A, what each one actually is, and how it is used.

They are grouped by type below rather than left in a single alphabetical run, which makes the list far easier to use if you are meal-planning, playing an alphabet game or looking for a substitute.

Every Food That Starts With A: Quick Reference

Fruits That Start With A

Apple

The most widely grown temperate fruit in the world, with thousands of named cultivars bred for eating, cooking, storing or pressing into cider. The practical division is between dessert apples, which are sweet and eaten raw, and cooking apples like Bramley, which are sharp enough that they collapse into a purée when heated. Apples brown when cut because an enzyme reacts with oxygen; a little lemon juice slows it down.

Avocado

Botanically a berry with a single large stone. Avocado is unusual among fruits for being high in fat rather than sugar, which is why it behaves like a rich ingredient rather than a sweet one. It ripens only after picking, and it ripens from the stem end — flicking off the small stem cap is a more reliable test than squeezing, which mostly just bruises it.

Apricot

A small orange stone fruit closely related to the peach and plum. Fresh apricots have a very short season and bruise easily, so most of the world eats them dried, where the flavour concentrates considerably. Note that apricot kernels contain amygdalin and are not a safe food in quantity, whatever is claimed for them.

Açai Berry

A dark purple palm fruit from the Amazon basin. The pulp is oily, only faintly sweet and tastes closer to unsweetened chocolate than to a berry — the sweetness in an açai bowl comes from what is blended in with it. It is highly perishable, so outside Brazil it is sold almost entirely as frozen purée or freeze-dried powder.

Ackee

Jamaica’s national fruit and half of the national dish, ackee and saltfish. Only the yellow arils are eaten, and when cooked they take on a texture remarkably like scrambled egg.

Aubergine

The British and French name for what Americans call eggplant, Solanum melongena. It is botanically a berry and a member of the nightshade family alongside tomato and potato. The spongy flesh has little flavour of its own but absorbs oil and seasoning readily, which is what makes it the backbone of dishes from baba ganoush to moussaka to baingan bharta.

Vegetables and Greens

Asparagus

A spring shoot harvested as it emerges, and one of the few vegetables where freshness is genuinely decisive — sugars start converting to fibre within hours of cutting, so old spears turn woody and bland. Look for tight tips and snap rather than bend. Green, white and purple asparagus are the same plant; white is simply grown covered so it never develops chlorophyll.

Artichoke

An edible flower bud of a thistle. You eat the fleshy base of each scale and the heart underneath, discarding the fibrous choke in the middle. Artichokes contain cynarin, a compound that makes whatever you eat or drink afterwards taste sweeter — which is why they are famously difficult to pair with wine.

Arugula

Known as rocket outside North America. A fast-growing salad leaf with a distinct peppery, slightly bitter bite that comes from the same family of compounds found in mustard and horseradish. Young leaves are mild; the flavour sharpens considerably as the plant matures or bolts in heat.

Acorn Squash

A small ribbed winter squash with dark green skin and sweet orange flesh. The ridges make it awkward to peel, so it is usually halved, seeded and roasted in its skin, which softens enough to eat. Unlike summer squash it stores for months in a cool, dry place.

Alfalfa

Grown at scale as livestock forage, but eaten by people as sprouted seed — fine, crunchy, mild threads used in salads and sandwiches. Raw sprouts of all kinds carry a higher risk of bacterial contamination than most produce because the warm, damp sprouting conditions suit bacteria as well as seeds, so people who are pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised are generally advised to cook them.

Nuts, Grains, Legumes and Starches

Almond

Not strictly a nut but the seed of a stone fruit closely related to the peach. Almonds are eaten raw, roasted, blanched, ground into flour for macarons and marzipan, or blended into milk. Sweet almonds are the culinary kind; bitter almonds contain amygdalin and are not eaten as food.

Adzuki Bean

A small, dark red bean widely used across East Asia, and unusual in that it is most often eaten sweet. Boiled and sweetened into anko paste, it fills mochi, dorayaki, taiyaki and steamed buns. It cooks faster than most beans and needs no long soak.

Amaranth

A tiny gluten-free pseudocereal, not a true grain, that was a staple of the Aztec diet. It cooks into a porridge-like texture because of its high starch content, and the seeds pop like miniature popcorn in a dry pan — the basis of Mexican alegría bars. The leaves are eaten as a vegetable in many cuisines.

Acorn

Oak seeds have been a famine food and a staple across many cultures, but they are inedible straight from the tree. Raw acorns are heavy in bitter tannins and must be leached — traditionally by repeated soaking or running water — before being dried and ground into flour. Korean dotorimuk, an acorn jelly, is the best-known surviving dish.

All-purpose Flour

Medium-protein wheat flour, milled to sit between soft cake flour and strong bread flour. That middle ground is the point: it produces acceptable results across cakes, cookies, pastry, sauces and most breads without excelling at any one of them.

Arrowroot

A starch extracted from tropical rhizomes, used as a thickener. It has two advantages over cornflour: it sets clear rather than cloudy, and it thickens at a lower temperature. It does not hold up to prolonged boiling or to freezing, so it is added late and used in sauces meant to be eaten fresh.

Fish, Meat and Cheese

Anchovy

A small oily fish, almost always sold salt-cured and packed in oil. Cured anchovy is less an ingredient than a seasoning: dropped into a warm pan it dissolves completely, leaving savoury depth rather than fishiness. It is the hidden backbone of Caesar dressing, puttanesca, Worcestershire sauce and many slow-cooked lamb dishes.

Andouille

A coarse, heavily smoked pork sausage. The Louisiana version is the one most people mean — spiced with garlic and pepper and essential to gumbo and jambalaya. It descends from a French original, which is milder, made from tripe, and quite a different sausage.

Alewife

A small herring found along the North Atlantic coast, running from the sea into freshwater rivers to spawn. It is bony and strongly flavoured, historically salted, smoked or used as bait and fertiliser rather than eaten fresh.

Alligator

Farmed across the southern United States, particularly Louisiana and Florida. The tail meat is the prized cut — lean, firm and mild, closer to a chicken thigh than to fish. Because it is very low in fat it toughens quickly, so it is usually either fried fast or braised slowly, with little middle ground.

Asiago

An Italian cow’s milk cheese with two quite different forms. Fresh Asiago pressato is pale, soft and mild; aged Asiago d’allevo is hard, granular and sharp enough to grate like Parmesan. Both carry protected designation of origin status in the Veneto and Trentino regions.

Sauces, Spices and Sweeteners

Aioli

Traditionally just garlic and olive oil pounded into an emulsion — no egg at all — along the Catalan and Provençal coast. What is sold as aioli today is nearly always garlic mayonnaise, which is easier to make and far more stable, but a purist would not call it the same thing.

Alfredo Sauce

The original Roman dish was butter and Parmesan tossed with fresh fettuccine, emulsified with a little pasta water — no cream. The heavy cream version is an American development. Both are called Alfredo; only one of them is what Alfredo di Lelio actually served.

Adobo

Two distinct things share the name. Filipino adobo is a braise of meat in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and black pepper, and is arguably the national dish. Spanish and Mexican adobo is a marinade or paste, typically built on dried chillies and vinegar. Both descend from the same Spanish word for marinade.

Allspice

The dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, native to the Caribbean. The name reflects the flavour, which reads as a blend of clove, cinnamon and nutmeg — but it is a single spice, not a mixture. It is fundamental to Jamaican jerk seasoning and appears throughout Caribbean and Middle Eastern cooking.

Anise

The seed of Pimpinella anisum, carrying a strong liquorice note. It flavours breads and biscuits and, most visibly, a family of spirits — ouzo, pastis, sambuca, arak — which turn cloudy when water is added because the aromatic oils drop out of solution. It is a different plant from star anise, though the flavours overlap.

Agave

Syrup produced from the sap of agave plants, mostly in Mexico. It is sweeter than sugar, so less is needed, and it dissolves easily in cold liquid. It is often marketed as a healthier sweetener, but it is very high in fructose — frequently higher than table sugar — and is best treated as a sugar like any other. The same plant genus gives us tequila and mezcal.

Applesauce

Cooked, puréed apple, eaten as a condiment with pork in much of Europe and as a side dish in North America. In baking it doubles as a fat replacement, adding moisture and some sweetness in place of oil or butter, though it produces a denser and chewier crumb.

Dishes and Baked Goods

Abacha

Sometimes called African salad, abacha is dried shredded cassava, soaked and then dressed with palm oil, ground crayfish, chillies and ugba (fermented oil bean). It is an Igbo dish from southeastern Nigeria, served at room temperature.

Achu

A Cameroonian dish of pounded cocoyam, smooth and elastic in texture, served with a distinctive spiced yellow soup coloured with limestone-treated palm oil. It is a labour-intensive celebration dish rather than everyday cooking.

Adai

A South Indian pancake made from a coarsely ground batter of mixed lentils and rice. Unlike dosa it is thicker, is not fermented, and carries considerably more protein, which makes it a more substantial meal.

Arepa

A griddled cake of ground maize, central to both Venezuelan and Colombian cooking, where the styles differ sharply. Venezuelan arepas are usually thicker and split open to be stuffed; Colombian ones are often thinner and served flat as an accompaniment.

Angel Food Cake

A sponge leavened entirely by whipped egg whites, with no butter, oil or yolk at all. That is why it is baked in an ungreased tube tin and cooled upside down — the batter needs to grip the sides as it rises, and it would collapse under its own weight while cooling any other way.

Confectionery

Aero

A British aerated chocolate bar launched in 1935, with a honeycomb of bubbles running through it created by whipping gas into the chocolate before setting. The texture, not the flavour, is the point.

Airheads

An American taffy-style chew introduced in 1986, sold in flavoured bars that are pulled and folded to make them light and stretchy rather than dense.

Foods Starting With A, Organised by Meal

If you are building an A-themed menu — a common school project or dinner-party conceit — the list divides cleanly by course.

• Breakfast: açai bowl, avocado toast, apple, apricot (fresh or dried), amaranth porridge, arepa, adai, ackee and saltfish.
• Starters and sides: artichoke with aioli, asparagus, arugula salad, roasted acorn squash, abacha, alfalfa sprouts.
• Mains: chicken adobo, andouille in gumbo or jambalaya, alligator, fettuccine Alfredo, achu, aubergine curry or moussaka.
• Store-cupboard and seasoning: allspice, anise, all-purpose flour, arrowroot, adzuki beans, anchovies, agave, applesauce.
• Dessert and sweets: angel food cake, adzuki bean paste in mochi or dorayaki, apple pie, Aero, Airheads.

A workable three-course version: arugula and asiago salad, chicken adobo with an arepa, then angel food cake with apricots. Every element starts with A and none of it requires a specialist shop.

Buying and Storing

A few of these behave differently from what people expect, and getting it wrong wastes the ingredient.

Avocados ripen only after picking and only from the stem end. Buy them firm and leave them at room temperature; refrigerating an unripe avocado stalls ripening permanently. Once ripe, the fridge buys a few more days.

Asparagus loses quality faster than almost any other vegetable, converting sugar to fibre within hours. Stand the spears upright in a centimetre of water in the fridge, like cut flowers, and use them within two days.

Apples keep for months if cold, but they release ethylene gas, which accelerates ripening in everything nearby. Store them away from other produce unless you are deliberately trying to ripen something.

Artichokes should feel heavy and squeak slightly when squeezed. Once cut they oxidise quickly, so drop the trimmed pieces into acidulated water while you work.

Anchovies in salt keep almost indefinitely unopened; once opened, cover the surface with oil and refrigerate. Jarred fillets in oil are milder and more convenient, and salt-packed ones are firmer and cleaner-tasting once rinsed.

Amaranth and adzuki beans are dry goods, but both go rancid or stale eventually — amaranth especially, because of its oil content. Keep them airtight and cool, and buy in quantities you will actually get through.

Useful Substitutions

If a recipe calls for one of these and you do not have it, these swaps hold up.

• Arrowroot → cornflour, using about double the quantity, but expect a cloudier sauce. Do not substitute if the dish is meant to look glossy and clear.
• All-purpose flour → equal parts cake flour and bread flour approximates it closely. For thickening alone, cornflour at roughly half the quantity works.
• Aioli → mayonnaise with crushed garlic and a squeeze of lemon. Not authentic, but it is what most restaurants serve anyway.
• Agave syrup → honey or maple syrup in equal measure. All three are sweeter and wetter than granulated sugar, so reduce other liquid slightly if you swap in the other direction.
• Allspice → equal parts cinnamon, nutmeg and clove, which reproduces the profile fairly convincingly.
• Anchovy → a small amount of fish sauce, or Worcestershire sauce, which contains anchovy already. For a vegetarian option, miso or a little soy delivers comparable savoury depth.
• Adzuki beans → red kidney beans for savoury use, though they are larger and firmer. For sweet paste there is no close substitute.
• Asiago → Parmesan if aged, or a young provolone if fresh.

Frequently Asked Questions

What foods start with the letter A?

Thirty-six are covered here. The everyday ones are apple, avocado, apricot, almond, asparagus, artichoke, arugula, anchovy, aubergine, allspice, anise and all-purpose flour. The rest are either regional dishes — abacha, achu, adai, arepa, adobo — or more specialised ingredients like adzuki beans, amaranth and arrowroot.

What is the most common food beginning with A?

The apple, on any measure. It is the most widely grown temperate fruit in the world and appears in more cuisines than any other food on this list.

Which fruits start with A?

Apple, apricot, avocado, açai berry, ackee and aubergine. Avocado and aubergine are both botanically fruits — berries, in fact — even though kitchens treat one as a fruit and the other as a vegetable.

Which vegetables start with A?

Asparagus, artichoke, arugula, acorn squash and alfalfa sprouts. Aubergine belongs here too by culinary logic, though not by botanical definition.

Are any foods starting with A dangerous?

Three warrant care. Unripe ackee causes acute ackee intoxication, which can be fatal — only fully ripened arils from naturally opened fruit are safe. Raw acorns are bitter with tannins and must be leached before eating. Bitter almonds and apricot kernels contain amygdalin and are not foods, whatever health claims are attached to them. Raw alfalfa sprouts also carry a higher bacterial risk than most produce.

Is avocado a fruit or a vegetable?

A fruit, and specifically a single-seeded berry. It is unusual because it stores energy as fat rather than sugar, which is why it behaves like a savoury ingredient despite being a fruit.

Sources

Ackee toxicity and hypoglycin A: StatPearls, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH Bookshelf); US Food and Drug Administration import guidance on ackee. Asiago designation of origin: European Union protected designation of origin register.

This article is for general information and is not medical or nutritional advice. Never eat a foraged or unfamiliar plant unless you are certain of its identification and preparation.

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