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Lentil, Potato, and Tomato Curry

A curry of lentils, potatoes, and tomatoes simmered with spices.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 12 ingredients
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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

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Cook the lentils

  1. Combine water, lentils, salt, and bay leaf in a large pot and cook.

Fry the potatoes

  1. In a large frying pan, combine potatoes, turmeric, cayenne pepper, olive oil, and margarine; fry for 5–10 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the potato mixture to the pot with the lentils and all remaining ingredients; cook until the potatoes are soft and tender.

  2. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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.

  1. Lentils + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lentils + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,797 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Turmeric + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Red split lentils
Break down as they cook, thickening the curry and giving it a creamy body.
Potatoes
Hold their shape in part and turn soft and tender, adding starchy bulk to the curry.
Canned diced tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that help build the sauce's flavour and body.
Olive oil and margarine or butter
Fat that carries the spices' aroma and helps the potatoes fry and brown lightly.

The step that matters

Frying the potatoes with the spices. Frying the spices briefly in fat releases their fat-soluble aroma compounds, so the flavour spreads through the dish. Cooking the potatoes until soft and tender ensures they are cooked through.

Flavor stand-ins for the turmeric

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, butter, olive, potato, pepper, tomato, honey):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  4. Turmericthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, butter, olive, potato, pepper, tomato, honey. 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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