Peanuts Are Not Nuts. They Are Legumes
Due to their structure they are considered legumes from a botanical point of view.
Peanuts are not nuts. they are legumes. It is not uncommon for a pea pod for example to contain half a dozen peas. Brazil nuts are not legumes or drupes. A peanut crop growing in the fields of Loxley Alabama.
Like soybeans lentils and other legumes peanuts are edible seeds that grow in pods. Theyre a legume in the same family as peas and lentils. Theyre in the same family as peas including chickpeas beans including soybeans and lentilspeanuts are legumes.
So theyre not nuts. Peanuts arent actually a true nut. This is what the peanut plant looks like growing in a field.
So if peanuts arent nuts what are they. And the difference between legumes and nuts is that legumes grow multiple seeds in an often edible pod. Why is the peanut not a nut.
Peanuts are not a nut they are of the legume or bean family. The culinary definition is more broad and simply refers to a seed or kernel encased in a hard shell. While real nuts are closing fruits the fruit wall of which is lignified and encloses a single seed peanuts are.
Even though nut is in its name a peanut is actually a legume. A nut botanically is the hard one-seeded fruit of a tree. Peanuts grow on vines not on trees theyre not hard and they grow two or three to a pod.