Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Vegetable Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Mince or slice the vegetables.
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Toss the vegetables in curry powder and cook in the butter until half cooked.
Pour in enough cream or gravy mixed with curry powder to cover the vegetables.
Stew until the vegetables are tender.
Add salt and lemon juice, and serve with boiled rice.
Optionally, add mashed potatoes, fried onions, or an apple for extra flavor.
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.
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Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together584 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together305 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Beans + spinachtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together365 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together290 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cauliflower + spinachtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together117 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, peas, beans, spinach):
- Lettucefits better
- Broccolifits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumber, peas, beans, spinach. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More vegetable curry recipes
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