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Spanish Salad

A chilled salad of roasted peppers, tomatoes, green onions, lettuce, dressed with vinegar, olive oil, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Spanish Salad

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the peppers

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the green peppers in the oven until blistered, then peel off the skins.

  3. Remove the seeds and cut the peppers into thin rings.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Scald, peel, and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Slice the green onions very thin.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine all ingredients and chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

  2. Arrange the mixture on a bed of lettuce on individual plates.

  3. Dress with vinegar, olive oil, and coarse sea salt.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

  1. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Blistering and peeling softens them and adds a smoky, sweet flavour to the salad.
Tomatoes
Scalding and peeling removes the skins, giving a softer, juicier texture in the salad.
Green onions
Thin slicing adds a sharp, aromatic bite that cuts through the sweetness of the peppers.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour across the vegetables in the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Blistering the peppers. The peppers must blister evenly so the skins lift cleanly. Under-charred skins stay tough and hard to peel, while over-charred peppers turn bitter and soft. Blistering also loosens the skin and softens the flesh.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, lettuce, vinegar, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, lettuce, vinegar, olive. 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.

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