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Tomato, Tuna, and Bean Salad

"This main dish salad is perfect for lunch or a light dinner. Dill, quinoa, and Parmesan cheese are optional. I make the salad without these, then add them to change things up a bit when we eat the leftovers. Serve by itself or over lettuce."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 23,449 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, 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.

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, crushed garlic, white sugar, salt, and dried dill weed if using until smooth.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the halved cherry tomatoes, rinsed and drained white kidney beans, drained white tuna, and chopped onion. Break the tuna into flakes with a fork.

  3. Add the chopped basil and the cooked quinoa if using to the tuna and bean mixture.

  4. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is evenly coated.

  5. Sprinkle with the grated Parmesan cheese if using, or leave it off for a dairy-free version.

  6. Let the salad sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes so the flavors blend, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

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. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Mustard + dilltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together560 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Mustard + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 dill

The recipe marks dill as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, vinegar, mustard, garlic, sugar, cherry tomato, kidney beans):

  1. Basilbetter flavor fit
  2. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  3. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  4. Dillthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, vinegar, mustard, garlic, sugar, cherry tomato, kidney beans. 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).