The Healthiest Vegetables, Ranked by Nutrients Per Dollar: 77 Scored Out of 100

The Whole Food Score (version 1.0) rates a single-ingredient food from 0 to 100 per standard serving. For vegetables, a serving is USDA's cup equivalent: one cup of most vegetables, or two cups of raw leafy greens. Every food is scored in the state USDA prices it, so boiled spinach is scored as boiled spinach, and a can of green beans is scored as drained beans with the salt they are sold with.

The score has four parts that add up to 100:

Priority nutrients (45 points). Eight nutrients the formula weights most heavily for readers over 40: fiber, protein, potassium, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and folate. Each one's percent Daily Value per serving is capped at 50% so a single standout nutrient cannot carry a food, then the eight are averaged and scaled to 45.

Breadth (25 points). A count of how many of 21 vitamins and minerals reach at least 10% of the Daily Value per serving. That 10% line is the level federal labeling rules allow to be called a "good source" of a nutrient.

Limiters (20 points). Points for keeping sodium (10 points), added sugars (5) and saturated fat (5) low. We use the scale on the FDA's Daily Value guide, where 5% DV or less per serving counts as low and 20% or more counts as high. A food keeps full points at 5% or less and loses them gradually until it hits 20%.

Form (10 points). Plain fresh, frozen or canned vegetables with nothing added earn 10. Added salt, sauce or sugar earns 5. Products with ultra-processing markers, such as the dextrose and color-holding phosphate additives commonly listed on frozen fries, earn 0.

Prices come from the USDA Economic Research Service's Fruit and Vegetable Prices data, which converts retail scanner prices into the cost of an edible cup equivalent after trimming and cooking. Every price in this article is a 2023 U.S. average from that dataset. The file lists 93 vegetable products; we set aside the 16 bean and lentil rows for a separate legumes ranking, which leaves 77. Because ERS warns that its price years are not comparable, we make no claims about prices rising or falling.

Nutrient values come from USDA FoodData Central, using Foundation Foods records first, then SR Legacy, then the FNDDS survey database. When a record is missing a nutrient, we fill it from the closest matching record and note it, rather than counting it as zero. A few canned products have no exact record: canned artichokes use the boiled-with-salt record, canned collards and canned mustard greens share USDA's generic canned-greens record, and canned turnip greens are scored with their canning liquid.

Points per dollar is simply the score divided by the price of one cup equivalent. To appear on the value list, a vegetable has to score at least 40, so a very cheap food with little in it cannot win on price alone. Three products clear that line only on rounding (green cabbage at 39.5, green beans at 39.6 and canned artichokes at 39.9), and we flag them where they appear.

One honest limit before the countdown: no vegetable here scores above 63. Vegetables carry essentially no vitamin D or B12 and only modest protein, so even the best of them can collect only about a third of the 45 priority points. That is a feature of the formula, which uses one scale for every food group, so a cup of broccoli can later sit beside a cup of yogurt on the same 100-point line.

If you have read our chip ranking, scored out of 100, this is the whole-food sibling of that score, built for produce with no label to read.

A strong score with one of the steepest prices in the produce aisle

Asparagus earns its place on nutrition alone. A cup of boiled spears scores 52, ninth of all 77 products, thanks to a generous dose of folate (about two-thirds of a day's Daily Value) and a broad spread of B vitamins, copper and selenium. It loses nothing on sodium, saturated fat or form.

The price is the story. At $2.58 per cup equivalent fresh, asparagus is among the three most expensive vegetables USDA prices, and frozen spears are no bargain at $2.60 (score 50). That leaves asparagus at the back of the value line. Canned asparagus is cheaper at $2.24, but it picks up more than 500 mg of sodium per cup and drops to 35, below our 40-point floor.

The fiber champion of the list, if the price fits

A cup of boiled artichoke scores 55, the fourth-best score of all 77 products. It is one of the few vegetables that lands real numbers across the priority nutrients at once: roughly 36% of the Daily Value for fiber, 39% for folate and 17% for magnesium, with nothing to lose on the limiters.

At $2.08 per cup equivalent, though, every point costs more than it does for almost anything else on the list. Canned artichokes make the trade even harder. At $2.58 they cost more than fresh, carry more than 500 mg of sodium per cup, and clear the 40-point floor only on rounding (39.9). If you love artichokes, the fresh ones are both the better score and the better buy in this data.

Frozen is the only form that makes the cut

USDA prices mustard greens frozen and canned, but not fresh. Frozen mustard greens, boiled, score 46, carried by vitamin K (far past the Daily Value), vitamin A, folate and vitamin C. They are low in everything on the limiter side.

At $1.29 per cup equivalent they land near the back of the value line. Canned mustard greens cost less, at $0.72, but they carry about 500 mg of sodium per cup and score 33. One caveat on the canned row: USDA has no canned-mustard-green record, so it shares a generic canned-greens record with canned collards.

A quiet top-15 scorer that most lists skip

Turnip greens rarely make the headline, but a cup boiled from fresh scores 51, eleventh of all 77 products. The leaves supply about 43% of the Daily Value for folate, 15% for calcium and 18% for fiber, and they cover vitamins A, C and K many times over.

The fresh bunch costs $1.27 per cup equivalent and frozen costs $1.33 (score 50), which places both in the slower half of the value list. Canned turnip greens are cheaper at $0.76, but sodium pulls them to 33. Our canned row also includes the canning liquid, because that is the only USDA record available, so treat its nutrient numbers as approximate.

The sixth-best score in the set, baked and scooped

USDA assumes acorn squash is baked, and a cup of baked squash scores 52. Its strength is balance rather than one headline nutrient: about 32% of the Daily Value for fiber, 21% for magnesium, 19% for potassium, and a run of B vitamins and vitamin C that lifts its breadth score.

The catch is waste. A whole squash loses its shell and seeds, so the $1.22 you pay per cup equivalent already reflects buying more squash than you eat. That puts acorn squash behind its butternut cousin on value, though it still clears the floor comfortably.

Frozen beats fresh on score and on price

Okra shows how much form can matter. Frozen okra, boiled, scores 50 and costs $1.11 per cup equivalent. Fresh okra scores 47 and costs $2.60, one of the highest prices in the dataset, so the frozen bag delivers more than twice the points per dollar.

Most of okra's score comes from manganese, vitamin K, folate (about 43% of the Daily Value) and magnesium. It is also one of the few vegetables that adds a little calcium, about 10% of the Daily Value per cup frozen.

The one canned vegetable that loses nothing to the can

Most canned vegetables in this ranking pay for their salt. Plain canned pumpkin does not, because it is usually just pumpkin. With about 12 mg of sodium per cup, it keeps its full limiter and form points and scores 51.

A cup equivalent of canned pumpkin weighs 245 grams, tied with canned tomatoes for the heaviest serving in the set, and it delivers about twice the Daily Value for vitamin A along with a quarter of the day's fiber. At $1.12 per cup equivalent it sits mid-pack on value. One distinction worth knowing on the shelf: pumpkin pie filling is a different product with added sugar and spices, and it is not what we scored.

Fresh clears the bar by a whisker; canned falls hard

Fresh green beans, boiled, score 39.6, which rounds to 40 and puts them on the value list by the narrowest of margins. Vitamin K and a modest amount of fiber and folate carry the score, and at $0.87 per cup equivalent the value is respectable.

The other forms show how thin that margin is. Frozen green beans score 37 at $0.72, and canned score 23 at $0.54, the second-lowest score of all 77 products. Canned green beans lose most of their gap to salt, with about 380 mg of sodium per cup.

Fresh and frozen are nearly a tie

Brussels sprouts are one of the closest fresh-versus-frozen matchups in the data. Fresh sprouts, boiled, score 48 at $0.98 per cup equivalent. Frozen sprouts score 50 at $1.03. Per dollar, that works out to 49.0 points for fresh and 48.7 for frozen, close enough that convenience can decide it.

Either way, a cup brings more than the Daily Value for vitamin C and well past it for vitamin K, plus about 23% of the Daily Value for folate. Protein and potassium are modest but present.

Same nutrients, different price, depending on how it is cut

A cup of boiled broccoli scores 52, seventh of all 77 products, with more than the Daily Value for vitamins C and K, about 42% for folate and 18% for fiber.

Here the countdown spot comes down to packaging. USDA prices broccoli florets at $1.05 per cup equivalent and whole heads at $1.32, even though both use the same nutrient record. The heads cost more per edible cup because ERS counts about a fifth of a trimmed head as inedible. Frozen broccoli scores lower, at 44, and costs $1.00.

A light vegetable that still clears the floor

Zucchini is mostly water, and a cup of boiled slices brings modest numbers: about a quarter of the Daily Value for vitamin C, and smaller amounts of manganese, folate, vitamin A and potassium. That adds up to 43, comfortably above the floor.

Because it is inexpensive, at $0.85 per cup equivalent, zucchini lands just above 50 points per dollar. It is the kind of vegetable that would never top a nutrient-density chart but earns a respectable place once a normal serving and a real price enter the picture.

Good, not exceptional, once you score a real serving

Here is the answer to the question we hear most: kale is a solid vegetable, but per serving it is not the leader. Frozen kale, boiled, scores 50, and fresh kale, boiled, scores 48, which puts them 18th and 20th of all 77 products. Spinach, collards, turnip greens, broccoli and asparagus all score higher per cup.

Kale's biggest number is vitamin K, at more than five times the Daily Value per cup, and our formula caps any one nutrient so it cannot carry a food. Beyond K, kale brings useful amounts of calcium (about 19%), manganese, vitamin C and folate. The frozen bag is slightly cheaper than fresh, at $0.92 versus $0.97 per cup equivalent, and slightly better on value.

A top-five score with one limiter deduction

USDA files avocados with vegetables, and a cup of avocado scores 53, fifth of all 77 products. It is one of the most complete foods on the list for the nutrients we weight most: about 35% of the Daily Value for fiber, 47% for folate and 18% for potassium, along with copper, pantothenic acid and vitamin K.

Avocado is also the only top-ten scorer docked for saturated fat. A cup carries about 3 grams of saturated fat, roughly 15% of the Daily Value, which costs it 3.5 of the 5 saturated-fat points. At $0.98 per cup equivalent, it still lands in the middle of the value list.

The protein leader among the vegetables

Frozen green peas score 52 and bring something few vegetables do: real protein, about 16% of the Daily Value in a cup. Add 26% of the Daily Value for fiber, 24% for folate and 38% for thiamin, and peas cover more ground than most greens.

At $0.87 per cup equivalent, frozen peas land at an even 60 points per dollar. Canned peas cost about the same, $0.77, but sodium and the added-salt form score drop them to 30. If protein per dollar is the comparison you care about, our best protein per dollar ranking puts peas next to the foods they compete with on that measure.

Frozen kernels outscore and undercut corn on the cob

Frozen corn, boiled, scores 42 at $0.69 per cup equivalent. Fresh corn scores higher, at 46, but costs about twice as much, at $1.42, so frozen comes out well ahead on value.

Corn's score leans on fiber, folate, niacin and magnesium, each around 11% to 14% of the Daily Value per cup, rather than on any single standout. Canned corn is the cautionary row: about 340 mg of sodium per cup and the added-salt form score bring it down to 27.

Whole heads beat florets on price, and frozen misses the floor

Boiled cauliflower scores 40, carried mostly by vitamin C (about 62% of the Daily Value per cup) with small contributions from vitamin K, folate and B6.

The value spot depends on how you buy it. Whole heads cost $0.66 per cup equivalent, while pre-cut florets cost $1.13 for the same nutrient record, so the heads deliver almost twice the points per dollar. Frozen cauliflower scores 38, just under the line, at $0.81.

The best score on the list, and a lesson in shrinkage

Spinach posts the top score of all 77 products: 63 for a cup boiled from fresh, and 62 for frozen. A cooked cup brings about 31% of the Daily Value for magnesium, more than half for folate, 30% for iron and 16% for calcium, plus nearly a full day of vitamin A and several days of vitamin K. Frozen spinach gives up about a point and a half to its slightly higher natural sodium.

So why is spinach tenth here? Because the countdown is ordered by points per dollar, and spinach's best value comes from the raw bag. ERS prices spinach two ways. Two cups of raw leaves (70 grams) cost $0.69 and score 44. A cup of boiled spinach, about 150 grams of cooked leaves that started as a much bigger pile of raw ones, costs $1.93 and scores 63. Cooking shrinks the leaves, so a cooked cup holds far more spinach, which raises both the nutrients and the price.

Frozen spinach sits in between, at 62 points for $1.19, or 52 points per dollar. Canned spinach scores 45 at $0.96; it keeps most of the nutrients but carries about 550 mg of sodium per cup. For more on how heat changes what you get from a vegetable, see our guide to foods that get more nutritious when cooked.

A top-15 score at a mid-range price

Baked butternut squash scores 51, with about 1.3 times the Daily Value for vitamin A, 23% for fiber, 14% for magnesium and 12% for potassium. Its breadth score is one of the better ones in the set, reaching the 10% line on 11 of the 21 vitamins and minerals we count.

At $0.80 per cup equivalent, butternut costs about a third less than acorn squash for nearly the same score, which is why it sits 13 places higher in this countdown. Like acorn squash, its price already includes the peel and seeds you do not eat.

The bagged mixes punch above their reputation

USDA prices several frozen blends, and two of them clear the floor. Frozen peas and carrots score 45 at $0.71 per cup equivalent (63.8 points per dollar), and the classic mixed vegetables bag of carrots, peas, corn and green beans scores 42 at $0.66 (63.5 points per dollar). The peas bring protein and thiamin, the carrots bring vitamin A, and the blend spreads the score across more nutrients than any one of its parts.

The broccoli, cauliflower and carrot blend scores 38, just under the line. The canned peas-and-carrots version scores 27, about 18 points behind frozen, almost all of it from added salt.

Cheap fresh, better frozen

Fresh collards, boiled, score 43 at just $0.61 per cup equivalent, the cheapest of the dark leafy greens USDA prices and good for 70 points per dollar. Frozen collards score much higher, at 56, the third-best score in the whole set, but cost $1.12, which works out to about 50 points per dollar.

The frozen advantage comes partly from serving size: a USDA cup equivalent of cooked frozen collards weighs about 165 grams against 130 grams for fresh. Either way, collards are one of the few vegetables with meaningful calcium, about 14% of the Daily Value per fresh cup. If calcium is the nutrient you are tracking, our ranking of non-dairy calcium sources looks at how much of it the body actually absorbs.

Nearly twice the day's vitamin C in a cup, for 55 cents

A cup of raw red bell pepper delivers about 1.9 times the Daily Value for vitamin C, along with roughly a fifth of the day's vitamin B6 and vitamin A. That is enough breadth to reach 41, even though peppers bring little fiber, protein or minerals.

At $0.55 per cup equivalent, red peppers are one of the better values on the list. Green bell peppers are a little cheaper, at $0.49, but they carry about 30% less vitamin C and almost no vitamin A, and score 35, below the floor. For a closer look at vitamin C specifically, see our vitamin C foods ranked per calorie.

Just over the line, and well ahead of most greens on value

Boiled red cabbage scores 40.0 exactly, with more than half the Daily Value for vitamin C and vitamin K in a cup and about a fifth of the day's B6. It does not lead on any priority nutrient, but it costs very little.

At $0.54 per cup equivalent, red cabbage delivers 74.8 points per dollar, narrowly ahead of red peppers. It costs about 50% more than green cabbage, and the two score almost the same, which is why green cabbage sits two places higher.

The best balance of score and price on the list

If one vegetable sits in the sweet spot of this ranking, it is the sweet potato. A cup of baked sweet potato scores 51, twelfth of all 77 products, and costs only $0.58 per cup equivalent. No other vegetable scoring 50 or higher comes close to that price.

The score is broad: about twice the Daily Value for vitamin A, 44% for vitamin C, 43% for manganese, 24% for fiber and 20% for potassium. Sweet potatoes also reach the 10% line on 11 of the 21 vitamins and minerals we count, one of the broadest profiles on the list.

Qualifies on rounding, then wins on price

Green cabbage is the closest call on the value list. Boiled, it scores 39.5, which rounds to 40 and just clears the floor. Its score comes from vitamin K (about 1.4 times the Daily Value per cup), vitamin C (63%) and small amounts of manganese, folate and fiber.

What sends it to third is the price: $0.35 per cup equivalent, the fourth-cheapest row in the dataset. That works out to 114 points per dollar. Sauerkraut, made from the same cabbage, shows how much salt can change a vegetable's score: about 925 mg of sodium per cup pulls it down to 25. If you track how produce prices move through the year, our month-by-month produce price analysis follows 15 fruits and vegetables through the calendar.

Raw whole carrots beat every other carrot form

USDA prices carrots five ways, and the plainest one wins. Raw whole carrots score 41 and cost $0.31 per cup equivalent, good for 131.7 points per dollar. A cup brings about 1.2 times the Daily Value for vitamin A, plus 14% for fiber and smaller amounts of vitamin K, folate and niacin.

Every other form scores lower and costs more. Baby carrots score 39 at $0.40, cooked whole carrots 38 at $0.39, frozen 39 at $0.66, and canned 26 at $0.65, all below the floor.

The most nutrition per dollar of any vegetable USDA prices

It may not be the vegetable you expected at number one. A cup of baked potato, eaten with the skin, scores 42 and costs $0.30, the second-cheapest row in the dataset by a quarter of a cent. That works out to 139.8 points for every dollar, the highest value on the list.

The score is modest but real. A cup supplies about 22% of the Daily Value for vitamin B6, 16% for copper, 14% for potassium and 13% for vitamin C, with almost no sodium or saturated fat. The skin matters here: ERS assumes shoppers bake fresh potatoes and eat the peel, so that is how we scored them.

The form makes a big difference. Canned potatoes score 26, and frozen French fries score 27, the only product in the set to earn zero form points for ultra-processing markers. To see how potatoes compare with other staples on cost and nutrients, our pasta, rice, potatoes and bread comparison runs the numbers.

Here is every vegetable product in the USDA price file, sorted from the highest score to the lowest. The value rank shows each product's place on the points-per-dollar list; products scoring under 40 are not ranked on value. Because the value rank counts every qualifying product, including several forms of the same vegetable, it can differ from the countdown above, which lists each vegetable once. All prices are 2023 U.S. averages per edible cup equivalent from USDA ERS.

A few patterns stand out once all 77 sit side by side. Dark leafy greens take the top three scores, spinach twice and frozen collards once, but the cheapest dark green, fresh collards, scores only 43. Several products that share one nutrient record, such as broccoli florets and heads, or cauliflower florets and heads, differ only in price, so the pre-cut version always ranks lower on value. And the bottom of the table is almost entirely canned or heavily salted: olives (about 990 mg of sodium per cup), sauerkraut, canned green beans, canned carrots and canned potatoes.

Most "healthiest vegetables" lists trace back to a 2014 study by researcher Jennifer Di Noia, published in Preventing Chronic Disease, a journal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It scored 41 raw fruits and vegetables on 17 nutrients per 100 grams, capped each nutrient at 100% of the Daily Value, adjusted several for how well the body absorbs them, and then divided by calories, so each score is the average percent Daily Value per 100 calories. It did not include antioxidants or other plant compounds, and the author noted that the classification still needed true validation. It is a research paper, not a CDC recommendation of any single vegetable.

Dividing by calories is the key difference. Very low-calorie greens win a per-calorie ranking almost automatically, which is how iceberg lettuce, at 18.28, outscored oranges, at 12.91, on that list. Our score uses a normal serving instead, in the form people actually buy and eat. Twenty-one vegetables appear on both lists, and here is how their order changes.

The biggest mover is watercress. It tops the CDC list with a perfect 100, but a USDA serving of raw watercress is two cups weighing just 68 grams, and on our per-serving score it lands at 36, twentieth of the 21. Winter squash and sweet potatoes move the other way, from the last two places on the CDC list to third and fifth on ours, because a cup of either brings fiber, potassium and a long list of vitamins and minerals. Spinach is the steadiest of the leaders, fourth among these 21 on the CDC list and first on ours. The CDC order column shows each vegetable's position among these 21, not its place among all 41 foods in the study.

Three of the CDC study's top five, watercress, chard and beet greens, are not in the USDA price file, so they cannot join the value list. We scored them anyway, per serving, for anyone who buys them.

Beet greens and chard both score in the upper half of the 77 priced products, with strong breadth. They lose limiter points for a reason that surprises many people: they are naturally high in sodium, even cooked without salt. A cup of boiled beet greens carries about 15% of the Daily Value for sodium and a cup of boiled chard about 14%, before any salt is added. Watercress keeps every limiter point but, at 68 grams per serving, simply does not deliver enough of the priority nutrients to compete.

The best score in this ranking belongs to spinach: 63 out of 100 for a cup boiled from fresh, with frozen spinach a point behind at 62 for $1.19 instead of $1.93. The best value belongs to the humble potato, baked and eaten with its skin, at 139.8 points for every dollar, followed closely by raw whole carrots and green cabbage. The cheapest row in the whole USDA file, cucumbers with peel at $0.298 per cup equivalent, fails the 40-point floor at 33, as does iceberg lettuce, which is a good reminder that a low price and a full cart are not the same thing.

In between sits the vegetable that best balances both: the sweet potato, which scores 51 for just $0.58 a cup. Across every comparison, one more pattern held steady. Frozen vegetables matched or beat their canned versions every time, and the gap came mostly from salt, not from lost nutrients. Whatever ends up in your cart, the full table above is there so you can find your own favorites and see exactly where they land.