Why it works: Feta cheese and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,438 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓
The recipe
8 servingsIngredients
Contains: milk, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Drain and rinse the black beans, red kidney beans and great northern beans, then add them to a large bowl.
Add the diced tomatoes with green chile peppers to the bowl with the beans.
Add the crumbled feta and grated red onion and gently stir to distribute them evenly.
In a small bowl, whisk the extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and Greek seasoning until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Pour the dressing over the bean mixture and toss gently until everything is coated, about 2 minutes.
Cover the bowl and let the salad rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes so the flavors blend.
Toss once more before serving and keep chilled in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
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.
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Feta cheese + olivetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,438 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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Beans + kidney beanstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,164 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Beans + tomatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,711 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the kidney beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, tomato, pepper, feta cheese, onion, garlic, olive):
- Chickpeabetter flavor fit
- Kidney beansthe original
- Sesameabout as good a flavor fit
- Lima beansabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, pepper, feta cheese, onion, garlic, olive. 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).
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