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Orzo with Tomato-Braised Zucchini and Chickpeas

This is an easy orzo recipe with lots of tomatoes, zucchini and chickpeas. Garlic and mint leaves infuse earthiness and fresh flavor. A nutty addition of pine nuts takes it to a new level. It’s delicious and comes together quickly! This is a prized recipe from my personal blog, The Mediterranean Dish!

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Orzo with Tomato-Braised Zucchini and Chickpeas

Why it works: Pasta and chickpea share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Orzo with Tomato-Braised Zucchini and Chickpeas

Serves 6
Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

552Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
85 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Chickpea1/2 cup canned (120g) drained134
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Pumpkinnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Pasta + chickpeatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Garlic + chickpeatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together813 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Pasta + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, olive, garlic, tomato, pepper, chickpea, lemon):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, olive, garlic, tomato, pepper, chickpea, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.