Skip to main content

Bacon & Roast Onion Salad

A rustic salad for one - contrast peas and caramelised onion with salty, streaky bacon and mustard dressing

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,243 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 1
Prep5 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (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.

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Put the red onion wedges on a baking tray, keeping the root intact, toss with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and roast for about 20 minutes until softened and browned at the edges.

  2. While the onion roasts, cut the smoked streaky bacon into strips and fry in a small pan over medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes until crisp. Lift the bacon out and leave the fat in the pan.

  3. Add the bread cubes to the bacon fat in the pan and toss over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes until golden. Remove and set aside.

  4. Boil the peas in a small pan of boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain.

  5. In a large bowl, whisk the sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard and the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to make a dressing.

  6. Add the torn Baby Gem leaves and the peas to the dressing and toss to coat.

  7. Top with the roasted onion wedges, crispy bacon and croutons. Toss gently and serve. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil if you like (optional).

By bbcgoodfood. 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. Onion + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Mustard + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Peas + lettucetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Olive + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, olive, sherry, vinegar, mustard, bread, lettuce):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Chickpeaabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, olive, sherry, vinegar, mustard, bread, lettuce. 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).