IS A BEAN A VEGETABLE?
No, it is not a vegetable in the strictest sense of the word. A vegetable is any portion of a plant used as a food yet not derived from the ripened ovary of a flower. A fruit is any part of a plant that is derived from a ripened flower ovary. So green beans are a fruit (the pod) containing, yes, a seed, and pinto beans, soy beans, etc are, yes, a seed, taken from a fruit. Examples of true vegetables are celery (plant stem), carrot (plant root), cauliflower (flower) and spinach (plant leaf). Examples of other fruits usually incorrectly referred to as vegetables are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and okra.
