Why it works: Peas and wasabi work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 13 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
6 cupsIngredients
Contains: sesame (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.
Rinse the dried whole peas, cover them with water by a few inches, and soak them at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. Drain well.
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the mirepoix and cook, stirring, for about 8 minutes until softened.
Add the drained peas, a splash of water to cover by 2 inches, the onion salt, and the garlic powder. Bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low, cover partly, and simmer for about 5 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes and adding water as needed, until the peas are very tender and starting to break down.
Drain the peas, reserving about a cup of the cooking liquid. Mash the peas coarsely with a potato masher, adding reserved liquid a little at a time until spreadable.
In a small bowl, mix the wasabi powder with a splash of water to form a smooth paste. Stir in the tahini, rice vinegar, and Dijon mustard until blended.
Stir the wasabi mixture into the warm peas. Season with salt to taste and adjust the onion salt or garlic powder if you like. Serve warm.
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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Peas + wasabitop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together13 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Peas + carrottop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the tahini
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, celery, carrot, onion, olive, garlic, wasabi):
- Beansbetter flavor fit
- Sesamebetter flavor fit
- Chickpeabetter flavor fit
- Tahinithe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peas, celery, carrot, onion, olive, garlic, wasabi. 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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