I would like to add that it’s important to be clear what is meant by “vegetables”. The word can mean very different things in different contexts.
Scientifically (in botany, biology or nutrition), “vegetable” means “plant”—all food not derived from an animal. But in colloquial usage, “vegetable” means a small and badly defined subset of that. Wikipedia describes this kind of vegetables as plant food that is not “fruits, grains, or nuts”. (Wikipedia also notes a third “culinary” usage, where “vegetable” means “any edible part of a plant with a savory flavor”; I’m not sure what that even means—presumably the usage of “savory” is not the colloquial one!)
In colloquial use, “vegetables” are opposed to “fruits” and distinct from “nuts”, “berries” and “grains”. Of course, many such “vegetables” are also botanical fruits (like tomatoes), and so are all berries and nuts; grains are the seeds of fruits.
Many (most? nearly all?) of the benefits that can be obtained from eating colloquial!vegetables can also be obtained from at least some other plant food. There’s a huge difference between a diet of only animal food, and a diet that contains everything except colloquial!Vegetables which are “not fruit”.
Regarding culinary usage, I think that “savory” is being used for anything which does not have sweet or sour flavors as the dominant flavor. So, tomatoes, peppers, etc… are considered vegetables, while apples and lemons are considered fruits.
Could be referring to Umami (most commonly translated as savory), one of the primary flavors with dedicated tastebuds in the “five flavors” model. (The others being sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Anecdotally, I forgot Umami pretty quickly after learning these in kindergarten, and no one I asked about it to try and refresh my memory could come up with any fifth flavor other than spicy (which is something different entirely); I eventually looked it up on Wikipedia, I think during my recent search for terminology related to each of the traditional five senses). I fI remember correctly, tomatoes are specifically listed in the wikipedia article as being high in umami.
Wikipedia also notes a third “culinary” usage, where “vegetable” means “any edible part of a plant with a savory flavor”; I’m not sure what that even means—presumably the usage of “savory” is not the colloquial one!
It basically means the kind of plants that you use in a main dish in traditional cooking.
You can use apples in a salad but you don’t serve spaghetti with apple soup.
I would like to add that it’s important to be clear what is meant by “vegetables”. The word can mean very different things in different contexts.
Scientifically (in botany, biology or nutrition), “vegetable” means “plant”—all food not derived from an animal. But in colloquial usage, “vegetable” means a small and badly defined subset of that. Wikipedia describes this kind of vegetables as plant food that is not “fruits, grains, or nuts”. (Wikipedia also notes a third “culinary” usage, where “vegetable” means “any edible part of a plant with a savory flavor”; I’m not sure what that even means—presumably the usage of “savory” is not the colloquial one!)
In colloquial use, “vegetables” are opposed to “fruits” and distinct from “nuts”, “berries” and “grains”. Of course, many such “vegetables” are also botanical fruits (like tomatoes), and so are all berries and nuts; grains are the seeds of fruits.
Many (most? nearly all?) of the benefits that can be obtained from eating colloquial!vegetables can also be obtained from at least some other plant food. There’s a huge difference between a diet of only animal food, and a diet that contains everything except colloquial!Vegetables which are “not fruit”.
Regarding culinary usage, I think that “savory” is being used for anything which does not have sweet or sour flavors as the dominant flavor. So, tomatoes, peppers, etc… are considered vegetables, while apples and lemons are considered fruits.
Whether or not tomatoes are vegetables depends a lot on the context.
Could be referring to Umami (most commonly translated as savory), one of the primary flavors with dedicated tastebuds in the “five flavors” model. (The others being sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Anecdotally, I forgot Umami pretty quickly after learning these in kindergarten, and no one I asked about it to try and refresh my memory could come up with any fifth flavor other than spicy (which is something different entirely); I eventually looked it up on Wikipedia, I think during my recent search for terminology related to each of the traditional five senses). I fI remember correctly, tomatoes are specifically listed in the wikipedia article as being high in umami.
A lot of vegetables don’t have umami themselves but are improved by its addition (potatoes for example). I believe these would also count as “savory.”
It basically means the kind of plants that you use in a main dish in traditional cooking.
You can use apples in a salad but you don’t serve spaghetti with apple soup.