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Harissa Sardines with Couscous Salad

Sardines are also known as pilchards. They're really good for you, cheap, and are a great fish for taking on bold flavours like this spicy harissa. There's definitely something really exciting about grilled or barbecued fish. I think sardines sometimes get overlooked because of all their little bones, but when you cook them whole, like this, you can strip out all the bones in one piece.

By jamieoliver · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Harissa Sardines with Couscous Salad

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Harissa Sardines with Couscous Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories
40 gProtein
35 gFat
52 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sardine100g canned drained208
Couscous1 cup cooked (157g)176
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Feta Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Olive1 large (4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Harissanot in our table0
Peppermintnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By jamieoliver. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Olive + feta cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,482 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  4. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

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

  5. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the harissa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, pepper, lemon, onion, mint, feta cheese):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Harissathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper, lemon, onion, mint, feta cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.