Name: Cucumber-Tomato Bruschetta in Phyllo Cups
Prep time: 20 min
Yield: 30 appetizers
Ingredients: 1 medium cucumber, finely diced; 1 tomato, seeded and finely diced; 1 small red onion, finely diced; ¼ cup Breakstone's Sour Cream; 3 Tablespoons cream cheese, softened at room temperature; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; 2 Tablespoons finely chopped chives; 2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2 packages phyllo cups (found in the freezer section)

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cucumber + chivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together244 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,150 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + chivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,405 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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, onion, cream, cream cheese, chive, parsley):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Lemonthe original
Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, onion, cream, cream cheese, chive, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Cucumber-Tomato Bruschetta in Phyllo Cups