If tomatoes are a fruit why?

Question

Why are tomatoes put in vegetable soup and other savoury dishes if they are a fruit

Answer 1

But pineapples are a fruit and they are put on Pizza's and cottage cheese and on sticks with cheese, these are all savoury!

Answer 2

To really figure out if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you need to know what makes a fruit a fruit, and a vegetable a vegetable. The big question to ask is, DOES IT HAVE SEEDS?

If the answer is yes, then technically, you have a FRUIT. This, of course, makes your tomato a fruit. It also makes cucumbers, squash, green beans and walnuts all fruits as well. VEGETABLES such as, radishes, celery, carrots, and lettuce do NOT have seeds (that are part of what we eat) and so they are grouped as vegetables.

Now don't go looking for tomatoes next to the oranges in your grocery stores. Certain fruits like tomatoes and green beans will probably always be mostly referred to as "vegetables" in today's society.

Answer 3

The botanical classification is fruit, the culinary classification is vegetable, the tariff/trade classification is vegetable. There is an ambiguity in that it depends on the context.

From Wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#Fruit_or_vegetable.3F

"But due to the scientific definition of a fruit and a vegetable, the tomato still remains a fruit when not dealing with tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (including zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity."

Answer 4

They say it's a fruit because it has seeds....also back when fruits were taxed more than Veggies,they decided to call tomatoes a Veg to pay less Tax. But I'm sure 50% of the People say Fruit and 50% say Veggie!!!Good Luck

Answer 5

Tomatoes are botanically a fruit, because of their skin, soft fleshy body, and seeds centered around a core. They are used in "vegetable" soup because they are called a vegetable in common conversation.

Another weird plant is corn. Corn is called a vegetable, and in produce, like tomatoes, you find it with the vegetables, when you want to buy it. But corn is botanically a grass.

Answer 6

Tomatoes are fruit because they are produced seasonally by the tomato planet as a means for distributing seeds. The seeds are the key.

Answer 7

Fruit is a product of a reproductive part of a plant. It usually contains seeds, like a strawberry or a tomato. Vegetables are parts of plants that a edible like the leaves (cabbage) roots (carrots) or stems (celery)

Answer 8

you can put fruit in savoury dishes, think sultanas in curry, apple sauce with roasted pork, why make boundaries like that when things taste so good together! It's all about the balance of taste in your mouth, salty, sweet etc, if things taste good together who really cares that you are mixing fruit and veg?

Answer 9

Because restaurant owners are dumb.
Fruits have seeds. Tomato is a fruit.

Answer 10

I've heard that the only difference between a fruit and veggie is that fruit ripens off the vine and vegetables do not.