Name: Green Pea and Bean Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup cooked green peas; 1 cup cooked French beans; 1 small cooked beetroot; 2 hard-boiled eggs; 2 teaspoons finely-chopped parsley; 1 clove of garlic; salad dressing; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Beans and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 215 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Green Pea and Bean Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

If using fresh peas and beans, boil them separately in slightly salted water with a small piece of baking soda; drain well.
Once cold, cut the beans into 1‑inch lengths.
Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the inside of the salad bowl with the cut side.

Dress and serve

Mix the peas and beans with 2 to 3 tablespoons of salad dressing, and season with salt and pepper.
Garnish with rings of hard‑boiled egg and slices of beetroot, then sprinkle parsley on top and serve.

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.

Beans + beetroottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together215 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together949 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peas: Provide the main body and tender texture of the salad.
French beans: Add firm crunch and bulk alongside the peas.
Beetroot: Adds earthy sweetness and a vivid colour to the garnish.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy contrast to the vegetables.

The step that matters

Boiling fresh peas and beans. Boil them in lightly salted water only until just tender, then drain well and cool. Overcooking makes them soft and mushy, while residual water dilutes the dressing and stops it clinging to the vegetables.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, beetroot, egg, parsley, clove, garlic, pepper):

Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits better
Chestnutfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, beetroot, egg, parsley, clove, garlic, pepper. 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.

Green Peas229 recipes

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Tomato Soup526 recipes

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Green Pea and Bean Salad