Name: Broccoli and Rice Casserole
Ingredients: 1 bunch of broccoli, cut into florets; 2 cups white rice; 1 stick of vegan margarine; 1/2 cup all-purpose flour; 3 1/2 cups boiling water; 2 tsp salt; 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari; 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp onion powder; pinch of tumeric; 1 cup nutritional yeast flakes; salt and pepper to taste; pinch of paprika

Why it works: Garlic and onion 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Broccoli + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,072 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Broccoli + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,294 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Broccoli + ricetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together684 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

White rice: Forms the base layer that gives the casserole its bulk and soft, absorbent texture.
All-purpose flour: Cooked with the melted fat to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Vegan margarine: Provides fat that carries flavour and helps form the roux with the flour.
Nutritional yeast flakes: Adds savoury, cheese-like flavour to the sauce.
Broccoli: Adds vegetable bulk, mild bitterness and a tender texture when steamed.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the fat before adding the water. Cooking the flour in the melted margarine until smooth and bubbly toasts out its raw taste and lets it thicken evenly. If the flour is not cooked this way or is lumpy when liquid is added, the sauce can turn out pasty or clumpy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (broccoli, rice, flour, sauce, garlic, pepper):

Kalefits better
Spinachfits better
Okrafits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against broccoli, rice, flour, sauce, garlic, pepper. 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
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Broccoli and Rice Casserole