Name: Light and Bright Pepper Delight
Ingredients: 1 small-medium of each: orange, red, yellow, and green bell peppers, seeded and cut into thin slices; 1 carrot, peeled and diced; 1 small tomato, chopped; 1/2 medium onion, chopped into large pieces; 1/4 head cabbage, chopped; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 1 tablespoon soy or tamari sauce; Basil, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper to taste; 3 or 4 scrapes of lemon zest; 1/4 lemon; 1 package of faux-meat strips

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Orange + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Extra virgin olive oil: Carries heat evenly and softens the onions and garlic while adding richness.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma that mellows as it cooks.
Onion: Softens and turns sweeter as it cooks, forming the base of the dish.
Bell peppers: Contribute sweetness, colour and a tender-crisp texture when stir-fried.
Cabbage: Wilts as it cooks, adding body and mild sweetness to the vegetables.
Soy or tamari sauce: Adds savoury, salty depth that seasons the whole mixture.

The step that matters

Cooking the onions and garlic until translucent. Cooking over medium heat, not high, softens the onions and mellows the raw garlic. Browning too quickly makes the garlic bitter and leaves the onion tough.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, carrot, tomato, onion, cabbage, clove, garlic):

Limefits better
Avocadofits better
Mangofits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, carrot, tomato, onion, cabbage, clove, garlic. 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
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Light and Bright Pepper Delight