Name: Lemon-Dijon Salad of Winter Vegetables
Ingredients: 1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets of uniform size; 1 small crown broccoli, cut into florets of uniform size; 12 prepeeled baby carrots; 3 oz. sugar snap peas, optional; 3 oz. snow pea greens, optional; 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard; 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice; 1 large clove garlic, minced; 2 Tbs. olive oil; Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste; 1/2 bunch radishes, stemmed, and thinly sliced; 3 scallions, ends trimmed, all white and about 2 inches of green, thinly sliced; 1/2 bunch parsley, minced

Why it works: Cauliflower and broccoli match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 127 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Cauliflower + broccolitop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Broccoli + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together705 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together687 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower: Forms the bulk of the salad and keeps a firm, crisp bite after brief blanching.
Broccoli: Adds firm texture and a mild, slightly sweet flavour once blanched.
Olive oil: Carries fat-soluble flavour and gives the dressing a smooth, rounded body.
Dijon mustard: Emulsifies with the oil and adds sharp, pungent flavour to the dressing.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the vegetables and balances the oil.
Garlic: Adds sharp, aromatic pungency that mellows as the dressing rests.

The step that matters

Blot and chill the blanched florets dry. Residual water dilutes the dressing and makes it slide off the vegetables, so drying the florets well before chilling keeps the oil and mustard clinging to them.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, sugar, mustard, lemon, clove):

Lentilsfits better
Beansfits better
Chickpeafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, sugar, mustard, lemon, clove. 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
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Lemon-Dijon Salad of Winter Vegetables