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Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers

Serve these vibrant stuffed peppers to veggie dinner party guests, then keep any leftovers for lunch the next day

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Why it works: Pepper and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,292 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep15 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (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 the oven to 400°F (200°C). Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a baking dish, with the stalks left on.

  2. Put the couscous in a heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water to just cover it. Cover and leave for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

  3. Stir the toasted pine nuts, chopped black olives, crumbled feta, semi-dried tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, and shredded basil into the couscous.

  4. Divide the couscous mixture evenly among the pepper halves, pressing it gently into each one.

  5. Bake for 20 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the filling is heated through. Serve warm.

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. Pepper + basiltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + basiltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,979 recipes

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

  4. Olive + feta cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Pine + basiltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, pine, olive, feta cheese, tomato, basil):

  1. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  2. Beansbetter flavor fit
  3. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, pine, olive, feta cheese, tomato, basil. 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).