"They Said Eggplant Was a Vegetable—Turn Out It’s a Fruit! Shocking Fact You Won’t Believe!

Tue, 05 May 2026 15:51:51 +0000

They Said Eggplant Was a Vegetable—Turn Out It’s a Fruit! The Shocking Fact You Need to Know When you think of eggplant, you probably picture it sliding into a stir-fry, curling in a ratatouille, or baked into a fearsome eggplant “dish” that defies expectations. But here’s a shocking twist many don’t realize: eggplant is technically a fruit, not a vegetable. That’s right—this deep purple staple of global cuisines isn’t classified as a vegetable at all, but as a berry in botanical terms. Buckle up—this surprising fruit truth is shedding light on a common culinary misconception you won’t believe! ### The Surprising Botany Behind Eggplant To understand why eggplant is a fruit, we enter the world of botany. Botanists define a fruit as the mature ovary of a flowering plant, typically containing seeds. Eggplant belongs to the Solanaceae family—plants known for producing berries, including tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. Botanically speaking, eggplant opens into a flower and develops a fleshy receptacle around its seeds—closing the scientific case that eggplant is a fruit.