Whether you're a PSL fanatic or just like to adorn your porch with a family of jack-o'-lanterns come spooky season, pumpkins are the sign of fall. The gorgeous gourds fill our plates with the best pumpkin recipes and also our homes as we paint pumpkins, carve pumpkins, and try out the best pumpkin decorating ideas all October long. But with so many different types of pumpkins and so much to do with them, you may begin to wonder: is pumpkin a fruit or vegetable? The answer may surprise you.
Sure, they may look, taste, and even cook up like other vegetables you know and love, but it turns out, pumpkins aren't actually vegetables at all. Yep, you're not getting a hearty dose of veggies every time you cook up savory pumpkin recipes. But don't be discouragedāinstead, you're get a big serving of fruit! Surprised? Pumpkins probably aren't the only produce you've mistaken for a vegetable. Keep reading for everything you need to know.
So, pumpkins are fruit?
They sure are! People assume that pumpkins are vegetables because of their savory taste, but it isn't any piece of produce's flavor that's the deciding factor. Technically, any plant that begins as a flower is defined as a fruit. If you've ever grown your own pumpkins at home, you know that it requires a lot of space and time, but you've also probably realized that pumpkins grow from bright yellow or orange blooms. And pumpkins aren't the only plant that follows that pattern.
Similarly, tomatoes are a fruit but did you know that cucumbers, squash, peppers, and avocados are fruits, too? Yep, each of these fruits also develops from a bloom. In fact, most any item with visible seeds on the inside is categorized as a fruit, which makes a pumpkin's gloopy seeds a dead giveaway.
So, then what's a vegetable?
Think of it this way: a fruit is something edible that a plant grows. A vegetable, however, is an edible plant. So while you can eat a pumpkin, you're only eating the actual pumpkin fruit and not the vines and roots that grew it. Compare that to vegetables like asparagus and carrots where you eat the entire (or almost entire) plant.
