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Indian Mince with Fresh Tomato Salad

This flavour-packed dish is super-cheap and speedy to make, the perfect family meal

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Why it works: Tomato and naan work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 57 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep2 min
Cook18 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat a large dry pan over medium-high heat, add the beef mince and cook, breaking it up, for about 5 minutes until browned and cooked through to 160°F (71°C).

  2. Add the sliced red onion and curry powder and stir for 2 minutes until fragrant.

  3. Stir in the dried red lentils and hot beef stock, bring to a simmer, then cover and cook on low for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.

  4. While the mince cooks, dice the tomatoes, chop the coriander leaves and toss them together in a bowl to make a fresh tomato salad.

  5. Warm the mini naan in a dry pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side, or in a 350°F (177°C) oven for 3 minutes.

  6. Spoon the curried mince onto plates and serve with the warm naan and the tomato salad alongside.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Tomato + naantop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Tomato + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,966 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + breadtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, beef, tomato, coriander, naan, bread):

  1. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  2. Beansbetter flavor fit
  3. Peanutbetter flavor fit
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, beef, tomato, coriander, naan, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).