Name: Big Girls, Global Kitchens: Southeast Asian Shrimp PaellaSoutheast Asian Shrimp Paella
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup white basmati rice; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 small yellow onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced; 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, divided; 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (from a 2-inch knob); 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; 4 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts divided; 2-3 green Thai chiles (serrano chiles work too if you can’t find Thai), stems removed, and thinly sliced; One 15-oz can diced tomatoes; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 cups light coconut milk; 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves, divided; 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined with the tails on

Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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.

Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,776 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Turmeric + coconuttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,027 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (basmati rice, onion, turmeric, ginger, clove, garlic, coconut):

Broccolifits better
Carrotfits better
Shallotfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against basmati rice, onion, turmeric, ginger, clove, garlic, coconut. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Big Girls, Global Kitchens: Southeast Asian Shrimp PaellaSoutheast Asian Shrimp Paella