Is A Tomato A Fruit Or A Vegetable?

Trick question! The answer is both.

Usually stocked near the onions, avocados, and garlic in the grocery store, most of us think of tomatoes as vegetables. Or at least we treat them like vegetables while cooking.

Sure, you can turn them into a dessert, like we do in our Cherry Tomato Cobbler recipe, but for the most part, we aren't baking with tomatoes. From salsas to sandwiches, tomatoes are used for their sweet, but also deeply savory, umami flavor that we don't typically associate with fruit.

This is why nutritionists consider this botanical fruit a vegetable, and likely why you do, too. That is until someone comes along (usually a little smug) and corrects you, pointing out that tomatoes are actually fruit. Well, it turns out, it's not that cut and dry. Let us explain.

Is A Tomato A Fruit?

Botanically, a fruit is a ripened flower ovary and contains seeds. By this metric, there are many pieces of produce that we consider vegetables that are actually fruit (like zucchinis and eggplants). But you don't hear people wondering whether either of those veggies is actually fruit. The controversy mostly concerns tomatoes, which meet the botanical criteria to be considered a fruit.

Here's an easy shorthand for knowing whether an ingredient is botanically a fruit or vegetable: Anything that contains seeds, is a fruit. By this metric, produce like pumpkins, cucumbers, and peppers, like tomatoes, are all fruit.

So, Why Are Tomatoes Considered Vegetables?

Tomatoes are lumped in with other vegetables because both nutritionally and culinarily we tend to only refer to botanical fruit, as fruit, if they are sweet.

For example, you wouldn't eat eggplant or tomatoes to satisfy your recommended daily serving of fruit. Since tomatoes contain less fructose (the natural sugar found in fruit) than sweeter fruits it's nutritionally often considered a vegetable.

They're also considered vegetables because, like many vegetables, tomatoes are served as part of main and side dishes, rather than desserts or snacks, as many fruits are.

It's not airtight logic, but since we culturally use the term fruit very narrowly, you can see how many fruit actually end up considered vegetables in practice.

Court Report

Botanically speaking a tomato may be a fruit, and nutritionally it might be a vegetable, but did you know that legally a tomato is also classified as a vegetable? The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Nix v. Hedden that tomatoes should be considered a vegetable in terms of customs regulations based on how they are used in cooking and popularly perceived.

The Bottom Line

Tomatoes are both a fruit and vegetable depending on how you slice it (get it!?). Strictly speaking they are classified as a fruit, but in practical applications, and in terms of legal regulations, they are considered vegetables because of how they're used.

If you ask us, this is a bit of a to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to situation. For us, it doesn't matter what you call them, just don't forget to salt them.

Related: Yes, There's A Right Way To Cut A Tomato—Here's How

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