Name: Spinach Salad
Ingredients: 3 cups spinach, finely chopped; 2 onions, finely chopped; ½ cup parsley, finely chopped; pinch of thyme; olive oil, to taste; lemon juice or Decimayonnaise; mushrooms, for serving; red rice, for serving

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Spinach Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the chopped spinach, onions, and parsley.
Add a pinch of thyme, olive oil to taste, and lemon juice or mayonnaise.
Mix well and serve with mushrooms and red rice.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + olivetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,948 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,557 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach: Forms the leafy base and gives the salad its bulk and fresh, tender texture.
Onions: Add a sharp, pungent bite and aroma that cuts through the greens.
Parsley: Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma and a bright green flavor.
Olive oil: Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and helps carry the flavors of the other ingredients.
Lemon juice: Provides acidity that brightens the flavors and balances the richness of the oil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, parsley, thyme, olive, lemon, mushroom, red rice):

Shallotfits better
Kalefits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, parsley, thyme, olive, lemon, mushroom, red rice. 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.