Name: Hot Curried Rice and Vegetables
Ingredients: 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 teaspoon curry powder; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 cup chopped carrots; 1 cup chopped zucchini; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 cup water; 3 cups cooked rice (cooked in chicken broth); 1/2 cup raisins, plumped; 1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans; 2 tablespoons orange marmalade; 1/4 cup sour cream

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,137 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the flavors of the vegetables and spices.
Carrots: Add body and a mild sweetness, and hold their shape when cooked until tender crisp.
Zucchini: Adds moisture and a soft texture as it cooks down in the skillet.
Sour cream: Adds creaminess and a light tang that rounds out the curry spices.
Orange marmalade: Adds sweetness and a citrus note that balances the curry.

The step that matters

Cover and cook until tender crisp. Cooking the vegetables covered traps steam so they soften evenly. Stopping at tender crisp keeps them from turning mushy when the rice and sour cream are added and heated further.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, carrot, pepper, cinnamon, rice, chicken):

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Avocadofits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, carrot, pepper, cinnamon, rice, chicken. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Pecans	1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)	196
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Hot Curried Rice and Vegetables