Why it works: Sriracha and lime work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 112 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 2Ingredients
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.
Fluff the cooked couscous in a large bowl with a fork so the grains separate.
Zest the whole lime into a small bowl, then cut it in half and squeeze in 1 tablespoon of juice, or as much as the lime gives.
Add the brown sugar, sriracha sauce and lime juice to the zest and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the couscous and warm it for about 3 minutes, stirring often.
Pour the sriracha and lime mixture over the warm couscous and toss for 2 minutes until evenly coated and hot.
Taste and add more sriracha if you like more heat. 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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Sriracha + limetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together112 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Sugar + srirachatop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + limetop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together3,331 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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