Name: Sukuma Wiki
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons canola or cooking oil; Onion , chopped (optional); 1–2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional); Diced tomatoes (optional); ½ teaspoon ground coriander (optional); 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (optional); ½ teaspoon curry powder (optional); 1–2 cups minced/ground beef or chicken (optional); 1 tablespoon bouillon powder or cube (optional); 1 bunch kale or collard greens (optional); ½ teaspoon or more ground cayenne pepper (optional); ½ lemon , juiced (optional)

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 ↓

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).
Garlic + kaletop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together490 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,967 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked 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

Onion: Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the flavour base of the dish.
Garlic: Adds aroma and pungency that mellows during the stir-frying.
Kale or collard greens: Form the main vegetable body of the dish and soften as they simmer.
Ground beef or chicken: Adds savoury richness and protein, browning as it cooks in the pot.
Diced tomatoes: Add moisture and gentle acidity that helps build a saucy base.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the cooked greens.

The step that matters

Stir-fry the onions and garlic without letting them burn. Burnt garlic and onion turn bitter and acrid, and that bitterness carries through the whole dish. Cooking them gently until soft and golden builds a sweet, mellow base.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, tomato, coriander, beef, kale, pepper, lemon):

Okrafits better
Broccolifits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, tomato, coriander, beef, kale, pepper, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Canola	1 tbsp (14g)	124
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Collard Greens	1 cup (36g) raw	11
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Coriander	not in our table	0

Sukuma Wiki

Sukuma Wiki

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Add the meat and greens

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)