Explore: Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Are you among those that often get mixed up as to whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable?

Just to clear the confusion up, but before then let’s see a brief introduction and origination of tomato.

Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

The tomato is the edible, red fruit of Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as a tomato plant, which belongs to the nightshade family, Solanaceae.

Tomatoes originated in South America but are now found all over the world.

Imagine, what would have been of us without tomatoes, we would have no cheese and tomato pizza; no ketchup; no baked beans on toast; no lasagne or spaghetti Bolognese; no tomato soup; no BLTs (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich); no mozzarella, tomato, and basil salad; no tomato gazpacho; no tuna nicoise; no salsa; and no tomatoes with our fried breakfast–or any of the other hundreds of dishes that use this savoury fruit.

Although often thought of as a vegetable, tomatoes are technically a fruit. They contain the seeds from which new tomatoes plants will grow.

The differences in usage between scientists and cooks tends to bring about a disorder as to whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.

According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary speaking from Scientist’s point of view, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless).

As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits, such as tomatoes or
bean pods , may be called ‘vegetables’ because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The term ‘vegetable’ is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come.

Occasionally the term ‘fruit’ may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb , for example.

Tomatoes are actually fruit, but there are still a lot of things similar to that of vegetables.

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