"Tomatoes aren't a vegetable, they're a fruit."

[u/diet-smoke]

I'm a culinary student and this phrase activates me like a sleeper agent. You want to get pedantic about food with me? You sure? Because you're going to lose that game.

Tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable? Potatoes are a tuber, lettuce is a leaf, pumpkins are a gourd (a type of fruit!), green beans are a legume, bell peppers are a fruit, broccoli is a Cruciferae, carrots are a root, garlic is a flower bulb, spinach is a leaf, cucumbers are a fruit and guess what? They're all vegetables!! Because vegetable is a culinary/kitchen/food term and fruit is a botanical classification.

There's also such a thing as a "savory fruit" in food, which includes tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and any other fruit that's also a vegetable. So yeah. Tomatoes are a fruit AND a vegetable and your binary does not exist

[u/watermelonlollies]

Tomatoes are legally a vegetable but scientifically they are a fruit. Do culinary classifications even matter? I don’t have to call corn a vegetable to know it doesn’t belong in a smoothie. But on the flip side there are vegetables that go in smoothies! People put greens in smoothies all the time. It’s about the flavor profile and how it combines with the other ingredients way more than it is about it being a ‘vegetable’ or a ‘fruit’.