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French Mushroom Salad

A salad of sautéed mushrooms, pearl onions, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, and a seasoned sauce of lemon, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, coriander, and white wine.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

French Mushroom Salad

Time20 to 25 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the mushrooms. Leave caps whole, but chop stems coarsely.

  2. Fry the mushrooms in 1/2 cup olive oil until soft. Set aside to drain.

  3. Peel the pearl onions, quarter the Boston lettuce heads, and slice the tomatoes.

Make the marinade

  1. Add the celery, lemon juice, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, coriander seeds, wine, and the remaining oil to a frying pan.

  2. Season and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until the onions are tender.

  3. Remove the mushrooms to a shallow dish and bring the remaining ingredients to a rapid boil for 4 minutes.

Assemble and chill

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the mushrooms and chill until ready to serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

260Calories
6 gProtein
15 gFat
27 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 14 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery Stalks1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Lettuce1 cup shredded (36g)5
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Coriandernot in our table0
Seednot 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.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms
Fried until soft, they absorb the oil and take on the flavour of the dressing.
Olive oil
Carries flavour and keeps the mushrooms moist and tender.
Pearl onions
Simmered until tender, they add sweetness to the cooked mixture.
Tomato paste
Concentrates tomato flavour and adds depth and a little acidity to the mixture.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the simmered mixture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the dish.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot mixture over the mushrooms. The mixture must be boiled first so it is hot and well flavoured; pouring it over the drained mushrooms lets them soak it up before chilling, so the flavour spreads through them.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, olive, lettuce, tomato, celery, lemon, thyme):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, olive, lettuce, tomato, celery, lemon, thyme. 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.

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