Veg cooked better loves to be eaten (8)
I believe the answer is:
beetroot
'veg' is the definition.
(beetroot is a kind of vegetable)
'cooked better loves to be eaten' is the wordplay.
'cooked' indicates an anagram.
'loves' becomes 'oo' (love means 0 in tennis).
'to be eaten' indicates putting letters inside.
'better' with letters rearranged gives 'beetrt'.
'beetrt' enclosing 'oo' is 'BEETROOT'.
(Other definitions for beetroot that I've seen before include "Food" , "vegetable's produced" , "one to get pickled" , "salad ingredient" , "Essential ingredient in borsch" .)