蔬菜(shū cài) - vegetable in Mandarin

蔬菜 (shūcài) is the formal, general word for vegetables, the category you would meet on a nutrition label or hear from a doctor. 蔬 (shū) on its own barely appears outside this compound; it exists almost entirely to pair with 菜 (cài, "vegetable, dish"), so learn them together rather than trying to use 蔬 (shū) alone.

菜 (cài) by itself is doing double duty in Mandarin: it means "vegetable" and also "dish, cooked food" more broadly, which is why a restaurant menu is a list of 菜 (cài) whether or not the dishes contain any actual vegetables. 蔬菜 (shūcài) narrows that down specifically to the plant, uncooked or otherwise, and is the word you reach for in everyday spoken advice like "eat more vegetables".

For naming an actual vegetable, Chinese generally uses a more specific noun, 西红柿 (xīhóngshì, "tomato") or 胡萝卜 (húluóbo, "carrot"); 蔬菜 (shūcài) itself stays at the category level, much like "vegetables" does in English.