this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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[–] NataliePortland@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes thank you. And what is a legume exactly? As members of the family fabacaea legumes include peanuts, clover, peas, green beans, and lupine. What do you notice of that group? One is clearly a nut, or is it? Two are unquestionably vegetable. And what about lupine? Is clover a nut a vegetable or a flower?

Yes beans are legumes. And carrots are “tubers”. Bananas are technically a grain. What about eggplant? It’s a “nightshade” but it’s a vegetable right? Or is it a fruit?

I love when people say beans are legumes and therefore not vegetables. It leads to such an interesting conversation. Many things aren’t as they seem. Some words are used botanically like “fabacaea” while some are strictly culinary like “vegetable”. The word “fruit” is interesting because it’s both! We all know that eggplant is not a fruit and yet it is!

You see every vegetable belongs to a botanical group the way beans are legumes, squash is a cucurbit (so is watermelon!), potatoes are nightshades, broccoli is a cole (also called brassica). All vegetables!

What is a vegetable? Well it’s really up to us to decide. We usually mean ANY part of a plant that can be eaten and usually we mean low in sugar. Beans are part of a plant. They are seeds of a legume just like peas. They are eaten with shells on as green beans but can be eaten fresh without shells like fava beans. Not vegetables? Think again!