Name: Mushroom Tagine
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 500 mL (2 cups) button or cremini mushrooms; 30 mL (2 tbsp) grapeseed or sunflower oil, divided; 1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed; 15 mL (1 tbsp) Ras El Hanout (use a store-bought mix or make your own using the recipe below); Pinch of saffron; 500 mL (2 cups) fresh or canned crushed tomatoes, chopped; 60 mL (¼ cup) currants or raisins; 500 mL (2 cups) water; 5 sprigs of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped with stems; Salt to taste; 15 mL (1 tbsp) ground cumin; 15 mL (1 tbsp) ground cardamom; 15 mL (1 tbsp) ground ginger; 7 mL (½ tbsp) ground black pepper; 7 mL (½ tbsp) ground cinnamon; 7 mL (½ tbsp) paprika; 7 mL (½ tbsp) ground coriander seeds; 7 mL (½ tbsp) cayenne; 7 mL (½ tbsp) ground allspice; 7 mL (½ tbsp) ground cloves

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 + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Saffron + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together369 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Clove + saffrontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together455 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sunflower + saffrontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Browning in batches builds savory flavor and lets them keep some texture in the stew.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the base of the stew's flavor.
Crushed tomatoes: Add acidity and moisture that combine with the water to form the simmering sauce.
Currants or raisins: Add sweetness that balances the warm spices and the tomato acidity.
Ras el hanout: Blended warm spices that give the stew its aroma and characteristic flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the mushrooms in batches. Crowding the pan traps moisture, so mushrooms steam instead of browning. Browning in batches in a hot pan drives off water and develops rich, savory flavor.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, sunflower, onion, clove, garlic, saffron, tomato):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, sunflower, onion, clove, garlic, saffron, tomato. 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
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cardamom	1 tsp ground (2g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sunflower Oil	not in our table	0
Saffron	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Mushroom Tagine

Mushroom Tagine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

Make the stew

Finish

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)