Is a Carrot a Fruit or Vegetable? (or even a Root)
When we’re cooking, some questions might pop up in our minds out of the blue.
It can be about whether a certain ingredient is healthy or not, or if that can of beans that’s been sitting in the pantry for the past year is okay to eat or not.
You might also wonder if a certain vegetable is actually a vegetable or a fruit in disguise. After all, growing up, a lot of us thought that tomatoes were vegetables, only to find out that they’ve been fruits all along!
With that in mind, is a carrot a fruit or vegetable? Let’s find out!
Are Carrots Fruits or Vegetables?
You might start wondering if carrots are also fruit spies or if they’re really vegetables. Well, you don’t have to be suspicious anymore!
Carrots are indeed vegetables! Well, root vegetables, to be exact.
Carrots come in many different shapes and sizes, with the most common type of carrots being the orange colored ones we’re all used to and grew to love.
Carrots come in many different shapes and sizes, with the most common type of carrots being the orange colored ones we’re all used to and grew to love.
There are, however, different colored carrots. Depending on quite a few factors, you could find purple, white, red, and even black carrots!
All carrots are domestically cultivated from the taproot of Daucus Carota; a flowering plant.
However, unlike the ones grown in the wild, domesticated carrots have been modified for their sizes to be larger.
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Do Different Colored Carrots Taste the Same?
All carrots taste how you’d expect a carrot to taste. There are, however, some subtle differences in taste depending on the color of the carrot.
Take purple carrots, for example; they have a hint of a peppery yet sweet taste to them, different from the usual orange carrots.
White carrots also have a notably sweeter flavor, whereas red carrots tend to taste almost the same as orange carrots.
This is all assuming you’re eating them raw; as cooking might change the flavor and texture of all carrots regardless of color.
Is a Carrot a Root or A Vegetable
Carrots are both a root and a vegetable or to put it another way their real category is “root vegetables”.
Other examples of root vegetables include ginger beets and parsnips.
Vegetables and Fruits: How Different Are They?
Simply put, fruits come from flowers while you’ll find vegetables coming from other parts of the plant. Fruits can also contain seeds, while, on the other hand, vegetables wouldn’t contain any.
There are multiple types of vegetables. Some are root vegetables, like carrots, and they grow under the soil and you’ll need to dig them out to harvest.
Others are leaves vegetables, such as cabbage, and they grow above the ground, so they’ll be completely visible for us to see as they grow.
As for fruits, they grow from flowers. After being pollinated, the petals usually fall off then the fruit will start to grow.
There are a few fruits that get mistaken all the time for being vegetables because of being mostly used as cooking ingredients.
Zucchinis can be used as an example for these cases. They’re widely known as vegetables, but unlike most vegetables, zucchini contains seeds and they grow from the flowering part of the zucchini plant.
This means that, unlike carrots, zucchinis are in fact fruits!