Name: Squash Laksa Cups
Yield: 10
Ingredients: 600-700 g butternut or onion squash, halved, peeled and deseeded; 3 freeze-dried lime leaves, optional; 4 red chillies, deseeded and finely sliced; 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced; 2 thumb-sized pieces fresh ginger, roughly chopped; 2 sticks lemongrass, outer leaves discarded, roughly chopped; 1 small bunch fresh coriander, leaves picked and stalks chopped; 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 onion, finely sliced; 600 ml organic vegetable or chicken stock, hot; 200 g basmati rice; 2 x 400 ml coconut milk; juice of to taste 1-2 limes; fresh coconut shavings, to serve, optional

Why it works: Butternut and cumin work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 9 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Butternut + cumintop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together9 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lime + coriandertop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,536 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,866 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,216 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,030 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Squash Laksa Cups

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Explore the science

The flavor team