Name: Moroccan Potato Casserole
Ingredients: 6 cloves garlic; salt to taste; 2 teaspoons paprika; 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin; 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper; 3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro; 3/4 cup chopped parsley; 1 lemon, juiced; 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes, sliced; 1 large red bell pepper, roughly diced; 1 yellow bell pepper, roughly diced; 1 large green bell pepper, roughly diced; 4 stalks celery, chopped; 1 pound tomatoes, cut into wedges; 2 tablespoons olive oil

Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cumin + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together821 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Red potatoes: Form the bulk of the dish and turn tender and starchy during the long covered bake.
Olive oil: Carries the spices and adds moisture and richness to the vegetables as they bake.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks.
Bell peppers: Add sweetness and body, softening as they bake in the dish.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that help form a light sauce as they cook.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the herb paste and balances the spices.

The step that matters

Covering with foil for the first bake. Keeping the foil on traps steam so the potatoes cook through and soften evenly; removing it later lets the surface dry and the vegetables tender up without becoming soggy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, cumin, pepper, parsley, red wine, vinegar):

Limefits better
Lemonthe original
Plumfits less well
Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, cumin, pepper, parsley, red wine, vinegar. 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
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Moroccan Potato Casserole