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Jewelled Couscous

Serve your grain with cucumber, apricot, peppers, olives and tomatoes then drizzle with lemon-infused oil for a mellow finish

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Jewelled Couscous

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Jewelled Couscous

Serves 8 - 10
Prep12 min

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

448Calories
10 gProtein
15 gFat
73 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Couscous1 cup cooked (157g)176
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Apricot1 medium (35g)17
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Olive1 large (4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1

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

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, cucumber, pepper, olive, tomato, parsley, cherry tomato):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, cucumber, pepper, olive, tomato, parsley, cherry tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.