Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

[EndlessCravings]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

Lol. All us Mexicans are crazy peeps. We are raised as children to have sweet things with chilies. Fruit with chili powder. Tamarindo with chili. Hell there is an ice cream flavor pepin con chili! Cucumber and chili. We even eat those awesome lolipops of mango flavor covered in chili powder.



omg my mouth is watering!

Mmhm. Walked into the back room to see my co-worker eating oranges with chili powder. All she said was "I'm Mexican" Whateverrrrr

[Briton]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

I still don't see how a tomato is really a fruit. I just can't.

Have you been ignoring the swathes of us who have been explaining that a fruit has a botanical definition?

[DanieMarie]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

A lot of plant-based foods we use as veggies are actually fruits. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, zucchinis, etc...all fruits. They're used as veggies in the kitchen, though, hence the term "culinary vegetable," which describes foods that are used as vegetables in cooking. "Fruit" and "vegetable" don't describe sweet and savory foods; they describe parts of plants. Fruits come from flowers and contain seeds. Any basic gardening book will tell you that. Tomatoes, peppers, and their like come from nightshade plants. The plant flowers, the flowers are fertilized, and they mature into fruits. Potatoes and tobacco also come from plants in the nightshade family, but are NOT fruits, as they come from the tubers and leaves (respectively) of their plants. Potato plants actually do produce fruits that look like hard, green cherry tomatoes, but you can't eat them.

But seriously, why is this thread five pages long? It's not a matter of opinion...it's a fact. Call them what you want, but factually, tomatoes, peppers, etc are fruits.

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I got real solid proof that a tomato is really a vegetable. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

Even though Wikipedia isn't the world's most reliable source, this is the FIRST SENTENCE of the link that you posted: "The tomato (see pronunciation) is the edible, often red berry-type fruit of the nightshade Solanum lycopersicum,[1][2] commonly known as a tomato plant."

[Eofor]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

Not a fruit salad, but salsa with pineapples, peaches, or mangos is delicious.

At first I was like "wut?", but then I saw some pictures and it seems delicious, indeed! I'll try it someday.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

Salsa with sweet fruits is great with fish!

[thalassa]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

Stop with your science ladies! My food world is turned upside down! Jalapenos? Are chilies berries?

Yup. And so are eggplants, zucchinis, watermelons, citrus fruits*, and bananas

Not a berry: strawberry, blackberry, raspberr, mulberry, etc (aggregate fruits)

Still a berry: blueberries


(A berry is a fleshy fruit formed from a single ovary)

*oranges, etc are a specific type of berry characterized by a thick rind and septae (segments), plus are super juicy rather than fleshy called a hesperidium

[DavidMcCann]

Re: Tomato: Fruit Or Vegetable

Lol. All us Mexicans are crazy peeps. We are raised as children to have sweet things with chilies. Fruit with chili powder. Tamarindo with chili. Hell there is an ice cream flavor pepin con chili! Cucumber and chili. We even eat those awesome lolipops of mango flavor covered in chili powder.

Not just you. Chocolate bars flavoured with chili are popular in Britain: the first firm to market them was actually inspired by Mexico.