Name: Shepherd’s Salad
Ingredients: Salad; 4 large tomatoes, cubed; 3 mild green chilies, seeded and minced, or 1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced; 4 scallions, finely chopped; 1 English cucumber, diced; 10 sprigs fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped; 5 small radishes, optional, for garnish; 8 to10 black olives, optional, for garnish; 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil; Juice of 1/2 lemon; 1 Tbs. white vinegar; Salt and black pepper to taste

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,037 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cucumber + radishtop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together212 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the main body and juiciness of the salad.
Extra virgin olive oil: Carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, rich body.
White vinegar: Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the oil.
Cucumber: Adds cool, crisp texture and moisture.

Flavor stand-ins for the radish

The recipe marks radish as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, cucumber, parsley, olive, lemon, vinegar):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Eggplantbetter flavor fit
Lettucebetter flavor fit
Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, cucumber, parsley, olive, lemon, vinegar. 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.