15 Vegetables That Are Actually Fruits

Most of us know tomatoes are fruits, but other "vegetables" that are actually fruits may surprise you.

Fruit or vegetable? It doesn't seem that complicated—and generally, it isn't. Botanically speaking, a fruit is the structure of a plant surrounding its seeds, while a vegetable is almost any edible part of the plant, aside from its fruit and seed.

That said, back in 1893, the Supreme Court heard a case that would confuse things mightily. When Manhattan wholesaler, John Nix & Co., was charged an imported vegetable tariff on a shipment of Caribbean tomatoes, he fought the fee since tomatoes weren't technically vegetables, and fruit didn't bear a similar tax. Nix lost when the court ruled that people prepared and ate tomatoes like vegetables rather than fruit.

“Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas,” noted Justice Horace Gray in his 1893 opinion. “But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables.”

And we've been confusing fruits and vegetables ever since.

Fruit or vegetable? Does it really matter? As Shakespeare reminds us, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"—we're a people who cherish our tomatoes regardless of what we call them. But for foodies, gardeners, word nerds, and pedants, it matters! And in general, many of us are so detached from what we eat that it feels like a ripe time to know more about where our food comes from and what it actually is.

With that in mind, I turned to one of my favorite books, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (2004 edition) by food scientist/author Harold McGee, for a hot take on the topic. And of course, there's a whole section on "Fruits Used As Vegetables." McGee has anywhere from several paragraphs to several pages written for fruits treated as vegetables, but we'll cut to the chase and share them with you here.

Fruits Used As Vegetables

1. Avocados
2. Bitter gourds
3. Chayote
4. Cucumbers
5. Eggplants
6. Green beans
7. Okra
8. Olives
9. Peas
10. Summer squashes (like zucchini)
11. Sweet corn
12. Sweet peppers
13. Tomatillos
14. Tomatoes
15. Winter squashes (like butternut)

In the end, some may argue—as did the 19th-century justices—that usage determines the name. Which is to say: If you pedantically belabor the point, at, say, a cocktail party ... you may get some eye rolls (not that this happened to me, really. I swear.) But knowing the true nature of what we eat is pretty cool.