Name: Good-for-you Green Curry
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 3cm piece ginger , roughly chopped; 2 garlic cloves , roughly chopped; 1 small onion , roughly chopped; 2-3 green chillies , seeded and roughly chopped; 1 tsp ground cumin; 2 tsp ground coriander; 4 cardamom pods , split and seeds crushed; 100ml chicken stock; 165ml tin half-fat coconut milk; a large bunch coriander , finely chopped; a small bunch mint , leaves finely chopped; 400g large raw peeled prawns

Why it works: Cumin and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,866 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.

Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,866 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together872 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,114 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ginger + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,114 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together582 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, garlic, clove, cumin, coriander, cardamom, chicken):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, garlic, clove, cumin, coriander, cardamom, chicken. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Cardamom	1 tsp ground (2g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Coriander	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0

Good-for-you Green Curry