Name: Niçoise Salad
Ingredients: lettuce leaves, of your own choice; 8 ounces green beans, cooked but still crunchy; 2-3 hardboiled egg, quartered; 1 small red onion, cut in rings; 2-3 tomatoes, skinned and in large chunks; 8 ounces canned tuna, drained and flaked; 1 clove crushed garlic; 1/3 cup black olives, halved or left whole; salt & freshly ground black pepper

Why it works: Tomato and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

lettuce leaves, of your own choice
8 ounces green beans, cooked but still crunchy
2-3 hardboiled egg, quartered
1 small red onion, cut in rings
2-3 tomatoes, skinned and in large chunks
8 ounces canned tuna, drained and flaked
1 clove crushed garlic
1/3 cup black olives, halved or left whole
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Make the dressing

Mix the oil and vinegar for the dressing, add salt, pepper and the herbs.

Assemble and serve

Toss together carefully the dressing, beans, eggs (keep one for the garnish), onion, tomatoes, tuna, garlic and half of the olives; add salt and pepper to taste.
Pile in the center of the serving dish; make it look as attractive as possible.
Finish the salad with the garnish ingredients.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,164 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,030 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together14,075 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Green beans + tomatotop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together113 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together23,449 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Green beans: Add a crisp, firm texture that contrasts with the softer tuna and eggs.
Hardboiled eggs: Add richness and a firm, creamy texture to the salad.
Tomatoes: Contribute juice and a fresh, slightly acidic flavour to the dressed salad.
Tuna: Adds savoury richness and substantial, flaky protein to the salad.
Black olives: Add salty, briny flavour and a meaty bite.

Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (green beans, egg, onion, tomato, garlic, olive, pepper):

Potatobetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Cucumberbetter flavor fit
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against green beans, egg, onion, tomato, garlic, olive, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.