Name: Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Yield: 2-3
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; ½ medium onion, diced; 1 clove garlic, minced; ½ tablespoon ginger, minced; ½ teaspoon clove; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon cumin; 1 carrot, diced; 1 medium sweet potato, ½” cubes; 2 21/2 cups veggie broth; 1 tablespoon honey; 2 tablespoons peanut butter; 3 cups spinach, roughly chopped; Brown Rice to serve, optional; Peanuts, lightly toasted

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cumin + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, clove, garlic, ginger, pepper, cumin, carrot):

Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, clove, garlic, ginger, pepper, cumin, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Peanut Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach