Name: Vegetable Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup cabbage, finely chopped; 1 cup celery, finely chopped; 1 cup cauliflower, finely chopped; 1 cup asparagus, finely chopped; 1 cup tomatoes, finely chopped; 2 large onions, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons olive oil; a pinch of celery seeds; lettuce leaves for serving

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 ↓

Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

1 cup cabbage, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 cup cauliflower, finely chopped
1 cup asparagus, finely chopped
1 cup tomatoes, finely chopped
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
a pinch of celery seeds
lettuce leaves for serving

Directions

Prepare

Finely chop the cabbage, celery, cauliflower, asparagus, tomatoes, and onions.

Combine and serve

In a large bowl, combine the chopped vegetables.
Add the olive oil and celery seeds, and mix well.
Serve the salad on lettuce leaves with your choice of salad dressing.

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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cauliflower + asparagustop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together305 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together313 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cauliflower + lettucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together151 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Gives the salad its crisp, crunchy bulk.
Celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, mild flavor to the salad.
Cauliflower: Adds crisp texture and bulk to the chopped vegetables.
Olive oil: Adds fat and coats the vegetables, carrying flavor and mouthfeel.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, celery, cauliflower, asparagus, tomato, olive, lettuce):

Broccolifits better
Cucumberfits better
Mustardfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, cauliflower, asparagus, tomato, olive, lettuce. 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.