Name: Orzo Salad with Tomatoes and Pine Nuts Recipe
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients: 1 pound orzo; 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved (or quartered if large); 1/2 medium English cucumber, seeded and cut into small dice (about 1 cup); 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted; 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil; 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley; 2 scallions, finely chopped (white and light green parts only); 2 tablespoons tightly packed, finely grated lemon zest (from about 3 medium lemons); 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed; Salt; Freshly ground black pepper

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together332 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Basil + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,823 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,351 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Olive + basiltop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

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

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

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cherry tomato, cucumber, pine, olive, basil, parsley, lemon):

Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits better
Pistachiofits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cherry tomato, cucumber, pine, olive, basil, parsley, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pine Nut	1 oz (28g)	191
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Orzo Salad with Tomatoes and Pine Nuts Recipe