Name: Moroccan Fennel Salad
Ingredients: 1 grated orange rind; 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice; 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice; salt; ground pepper; 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil; 2 small fennel bulbs; 1/2 red onion, sliced; 6 radishes, thinly sliced; 1 bunch watercress

Why it works: Radish and watercress share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. 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.

Radish + watercresstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lime + fenneltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together117 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lime + watercresstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together68 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Fennel + watercresstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together59 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Fennel bulbs: Provides the crisp, juicy base and a mild anise aroma.
Virgin olive oil: Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth body.
Fresh orange juice: Adds gentle sweetness and fruitiness that balances the sharp citrus notes.
Lime or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and lifts the vegetables.
Radishes: Add crunch and a peppery bite that contrasts with the fennel.
Watercress: Adds fresh, peppery leaves that give the salad lightness and aroma.

The step that matters

Adding the dressing in two portions. Acid and oil begin to soften the fennel and mellow the sharp onion, so the vegetables absorb flavour. Watercress is delicate and wilts quickly under acid, so adding the rest of the dressing only after the leaves are mixed in keeps them crisp and evenly coated.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, lime, pepper, olive, fennel, radish, watercress):

Lettucefits better
Beetrootfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, lime, pepper, olive, fennel, radish, watercress. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Orange Juice	1 medium (131g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Fennel Bulb	1/2 bulb (87g)	27
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Watercress	1 cup (34g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Moroccan Fennel Salad