Foods of the New World

When the Spanish and other Europeans came to South America and began their conquest of the New World, they discovered some things that were far more valuable than the gold they hoped to find. They discovered new foods that would eventually become major cash crops for Europe and would also change the diets of Europeans forever.
Corn which had been a major crop for Native Americans living in the new Americas, could be cooked in a number of different ways and helped save the new settlers from starvation. It didn't take long for this edible gold to be spread across the world. Potatoes were a crop that was mostly used by Indians in South America to make a potato based bread. The English brought it back to their country in the 1500s and from there it spread to. Scotland and Ireland. It's hard to imagine what Ireland would be like today if it hadn't been introduced to the potato.
Tobacco was a crop of the New World that was set to make England a very wealthy nation. Pilgrims settled along the southern coast of North America and began to grow large plantation of the cash crop that was becoming an addiction in European countries.
Cacao or chocolate, was not altered into what we know as modern day chocolate until it was taken back to the Old World. In the Aztec culture Cacao beans were highly prized and often times used as currency and as a gift to the gods. The cacao beans were usually ground up into an unsweetened beverage that the Aztecs enjoyed.
Other crops discovered in the New World include tomatoes, pineapple, peanuts, sunflowers, squash, vanilla, and quinine.