because they aren’t eaten for dessert

This sounds to me like a reasonable way to disqualify something as a culinary fruit.

Folks like to make a big hullabaloo about tomatoes being technically a fruit, but no one gives a second thought about referring to peppers, cucumbers, green beans, eggplant, avocado, pumpkins & other squash, or corn on-the-cob as vegetables even though they are all technically fruit.

And I was being picky there, because beans, peas, grains and nuts are all also technically fruit. Heck, lots of “nuts” like peanuts and cashews aren’t even really nuts.

Keep your taxonomy out of my kitchen:

• Fruit are sweet.
• Vegetables are not.
• Grains make bread.
• Herbs and spices add a lot of flavor with a little bit. Herbs are the green ones.
• nuts are. They just are. Don’t think about it too hard.