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Greek Lamb Kabobs with Yogurt-Mint Salsa Verde

"Pieces of lamb tenderloin are marinated in garlic, oil, and sherry vinegar, then threaded on rosemary skewers and grilled. A creamy salsa verde of Greek yogurt, fresh mint, oregano, and parsley complement these skewers nicely!"

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Why it works: Lamb and yogurt match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 209 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

8 skewers
Prep25 min
Cook8 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • Lamb Skewers
  • Salsa Verde

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Strip the leaves from the lower half of each rosemary sprig, leaving the top leaves on, and set the sprigs aside.

  2. In a bowl, whisk the olive oil, sherry vinegar, minced garlic, thyme, sea salt and ground white pepper. Add the lamb pieces and toss to coat.

  3. Cover the lamb and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight.

  4. To make the salsa verde, whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, Greek yogurt, crushed garlic clove, sea salt, anchovy, capers, mint, oregano and parsley in a bowl. Refrigerate until serving.

  5. Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat.

  6. Thread the marinated lamb pieces evenly onto the rosemary sprigs to make 8 skewers.

  7. Grill the skewers 2 to 3 minutes per side until browned, until the thickest piece of lamb reaches 145°F (63°C).

  8. Rest the skewers for 3 minutes, then serve with the salsa verde spooned over or alongside.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lamb + yogurttop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Rosemary + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Rosemary + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,489 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Rosemary + minttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rosemary, garlic, thyme, olive, sherry, vinegar, lamb):

  1. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  2. Oreganobetter flavor fit
  3. Basilbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rosemary, garlic, thyme, olive, sherry, vinegar, lamb. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).