Name: Simple Salsa
Ingredients: thumb|166px; 2 tomatoes, for slicing; 2 green bell peppers; 1/2 of an Onion; 2 jalapeno peppers; 1 Garlic clove chopped; 1 Serrano pepper (optional); 1 bunch cilantro; 2 lemons, juice of

Why it works: Onion and garlic 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 ↓

Simple Salsa

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Finely chop all ingredients except cilantro.
Mix the ingredients together and add the lemon juice to the mixture.
Stir the ingredients until evenly mixed.
Chop the cilantro and stir into the mixture.

Store

Store in refrigerator; keeps for several days.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

133Calories

5 gProtein

1 gFat

29 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 9 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Jalapeno Pepper	1 pepper (14g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,700 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 moisture of the salsa.
Jalapeno peppers: Add heat and a sharp, fresh pepper flavour.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the peppers.
Cilantro: Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and flavour.

Swap the jalapeno

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, clove, lemon):

Thymefits better
Basilfits better
Oreganofits better
Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, clove, lemon. 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.