Name: Prawn Jambalaya Recipe
Ingredients: 250g easy-cook long grain white rice; 1 teaspoon vegetable oil; 1 medium onion, finely chopped; 2 celery sticks, thickly sliced; 1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped; 2 handfuls of cup or button mushrooms, sliced; 4 tomatoes, chopped; 250g cooked peeled prawns (defrosted if frozen); 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped; 2 teaspoon cajun seasoning; half a teaspoon chilli powder; 1 pinch ground black pepper

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 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

Long grain white rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs flavour as it cooks through.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the base flavour of the dish.
Prawns: Provide the main protein and cook quickly, so they stay tender when added late.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that help bring the spices and rice together.
Mushrooms: Release moisture as they cook, adding savoury depth and a soft texture.
Celery: Adds a crisp, aromatic note that softens during the initial cooking.

The step that matters

Heating the prawns with the vegetables. Cooked prawns toughen and turn rubbery if overcooked, so they should only be heated through in the final stir-fry rather than cooked for long.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, celery, pepper, mushroom, tomato, parsley):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, celery, pepper, mushroom, tomato, parsley. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Prawn Jambalaya Recipe