Name: Tahitian Sweet Potatoes with Fei
Ingredients: 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced; 2 tablespoons cooking oil; 1 (13.5 ounces) can light coconut milk; 1-2 tablespoon red curry paste; 1 lime; 1 tablespoon fish sauce; 1 tablespoon brown sugar; 3 firm bananas (they can be slightly green); 3-4 Thai red chili peppers, sliced; 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Why it works: Sweet potato and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 177 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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.

Sweet potato + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together177 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sweet potato + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together159 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Coconut + limetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together934 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Coconut + bananatop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together549 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes: Hold their shape while adding body and a soft, starchy texture to the curry.
Coconut milk: Provides fat and creaminess, mellowing the heat of the curry paste.
Red curry paste: Supplies the main spice, heat and aroma that flavour the whole dish.
Bananas: Add natural sweetness and a soft texture that thickens slightly as they cook.
Lime: Adds acidity that brightens the rich coconut sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the bananas over low heat for 5-7 minutes. Firm bananas soften quickly and can turn mushy if overcooked. Gentle heat warms them through while keeping their pieces intact, as the record describes.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sweet potato, coconut, milk, lime, fish sauce, sugar, pepper):

Mangofits better
Pineapplefits better
Avocadofits better
Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, coconut, milk, lime, fish sauce, sugar, pepper. 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
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1

Tahitian Sweet Potatoes with Fei