Fruit or Vegetable?

When we were eating avocados on Wednesday, Sandor and I started discussing whether it was a fruit or a vegetable. I knew that at some point I knew the difference, but I couldn't remember what it was, other than it had to do with seeds. Randomly, I remembered and searched it this evening. In case you are in the same boat, here is my summary of what I found...

First let's define it from the botanical side. A fruit is the sweet, ripened ovary of a seed-bearing plant. In short, the fruit of a plant contains the seeds of a plant and so if it has seeds it's a fruit. A vegetable, in contrast, is the actual plant (or edible part, thereof). It can be seeds (peas and beans), stems (asparagus), leaves (lettuce and, spinach), flowers (broccoli and cauliflower), and roots (carrots and potatoes). Peas are vegetables. Peas in the pod are fruit.

Next, let's look at it from the culinary side. The term vegetable is traditional, rather than scientific, so it is somewhat arbitrary and subjective depending on the cultural customs of food selection and preparation. Vegetables are used in savory or salted dishes, whereas fruits are usually used in sweet dishes. Most fruits are sweet because they contain the simple sugar, fructose. Vegetables, on the other hand, do not contain as much fructose. Biologically speaking, the sweetness of fruits encourage animals to eat them, which in turn spreads the seeds of the plant.

So, if you stick to the botanical definition tomato, cucumber, squash, zucchini, avocado, pepper, and pumpkin are all fruits because they have seeds. If however, you define them in culinary terms all those are considered vegetables.

Now, let's throw the law in there just for fun. In 1883 the United States Supreme Court decided that a tomato is a vegetable, even though it is a botanical fruit. So, a fruit can become a vegetable, but a vegetable cannot become a fruit. And a tomato is both a fruit and a vegetable, just depends if you ask a botanist, a chef, or a Supreme Court justice.

No wonder we are confused!