Why it works: Lentils and tomato work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 463 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the lentils
Boil lentils in water for about 30-40 minutes (or until thoroughly cooked).
While these are cooking, chop onions and tomatoes.
Make the stew
In a very large skillet or pan, sauté onions until translucent.
Add tomatoes and stir occasionally.
Add marjoram, savory and salt.
When it seems the tomatoes are fairly stewy and cooked, add the cooked, well drained lentils (which by this time should be done).
Cook together for 10-15 minutes more.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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.
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Lentils + tomatotop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together463 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together20,622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + marjoramtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together299 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lentils + oniontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,221 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + marjoramtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,050 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brown lentils
- Provide the bulk and body of the stew, becoming tender as they cook through.
- Onions
- Sweeten and build savory depth as they soften and turn translucent in the oil.
- Tomatoes
- Supply moisture and acidity, breaking down into a stewy sauce as they cook.
- Oil
- Carries heat and flavor, helping the onions soften and brown lightly.
The step that matters
Drain the lentils well before adding them. Excess cooking water would dilute the tomato base and make the stew thin and watery, so the lentils should be thoroughly drained first.
Flavor stand-ins for the marjoram
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, onion, tomato):
- Cuminbetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Marjoramthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, onion, tomato. 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.
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