Name: Late-summer Green Salad
Prep time: 50 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 6 spring onions , trimmed; 140g runner beans; 3 x 2cm-thick slices olive bread , cut into 2cm-square dice; 5 tbsp olive oil , for frying; 2 knobs butter; 2 medium courgettes; 1 large green pepper , deseeded and thinly sliced; handful basil leaves; 85g baby spinach leaves, washed, trimmed from stems; parmesan shavings; 1 large shallot , finely chopped; 1 garlic clove , crushed; 9 tbsp olive oil; 2 red peppers , deseeded and cut into 5mm dice; 1 bay leaf; sprig of thyme; ¼ tsp caster sugar

Why it works: Beans and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 365 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. 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.

Beans + spinachtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together365 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Olive + basiltop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,294 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,470 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Olive + spinachtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 (beans, olive, bread, butter, pepper, basil, spinach):

Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, olive, bread, butter, pepper, basil, spinach. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Bean	not in our table	0

Late-summer Green Salad