Are Cucumbers A Fruit (If So, What Are Pickles)?

Cucumbers are typically paired with so many vegetables that we just assume they must be vegetables, too. Their presence in our salads and veggie trays signifies that they're probably a vegetable, but how true is that?

We likely grew up hearing that cucumbers are vegetables, and we probably haven't given the matter a second thought since kindergarten. Cucumbers, like many vegetables, taste earthy instead of sweet like our favorite fruits, so it makes sense to categorize them that way. We're not usually topping our desserts with cucumbers or turning them into breakfast spreads like we tend to do with fruits, either. The truth, though, might be a bit more complicated than we were originally told. After all, we were also told tomatoes were vegetables, only to later hear that's not true in the slightest. 

Are cucumbers a fruit, a vegetable, or something else entirely? And if cucumbers aren't a vegetable, then how do we categorize pickles? It all comes down to the definitions of "fruit" and "vegetable" — and they might surprise you.

In determining where a cucumber (or any fruit or vegetable) falls into the fruit-veggie scale, it's important to know how fruits differ from vegetables. Fruits grow from a plant's flower, and all fruits have seeds. By contrast, vegetables grow from other parts of the plant, like the leaves or roots, and they don't have seeds at all.

If you cut a cucumber open, you'll see row upon row of telltale seeds. Yup, cucumbers are actually fruits. Why do they get lumped in with vegetables so often? It mainly comes down to how we use them in the kitchen. Cucumbers are used in many savory dishes in which we typically incorporate vegetables, rather than in the sweet treats in which we usually use fruit. Cucumbers aren't used in cakes or jellies — there's a reason why you probably can't imagine cucumber jelly. Meanwhile, cucumbers are used in soups, stews, and of course, salads in which vegetables dominate and fruit is a botanical minority. Cucumbers blend into those dishes so well that it's easy to forget that they aren't actually vegetables, so the veggie deception continues on.

Anyone who enjoys pickles might wonder where they fit into the equation, especially considering that cucumbers are actually fruits. Are pickles also fruits, or are they classified in a completely different way?

Pickles, which are simply pickled cucumbers, are often found in sandwiches and burgers alongside vegetables like lettuce and onions. Although this might hint that they're a vegetable, they're classified as a fruit — albeit a pickled one. They still contain the seeds that cucumbers have, and though you won't find a "pickle flower" out in the wild, they still originate from the flower of the cucumber plant, so they're a fruit. On the other hand, pickles that aren't made of cucumbers may be classified as either fruits or vegetables, depending on what their food of origin is. While a pickle can technically be either a fruit or a vegetable, the pickles you put on your sandwiches are definitely fruits because cucumbers are, too. It's time to debunk all of those myths — cucumbers and pickles are fruits, and they always will be.