Why it works: Chard and lamb work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 12 recipes mention both. Both carry geraniol, which smells rose, geranium. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: 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.
Pull the chard leaves from the stalks. Finely chop the stalks and roughly shred the leaves, keeping them separate.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown the diced lamb in batches for about 5 minutes until golden, then set it aside.
Lower the heat to medium. Add the sliced onion and chopped chard stalks and cook for 4 minutes until softened.
Add the sliced garlic, ground turmeric, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and chilli flakes. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant.
Return the lamb and any juices to the pan. Pour in the stock, add the raisins, and simmer gently for 8 minutes until the lamb is cooked through and the sauce has reduced slightly.
Check that the thickest pieces of lamb reach 145°F (63°C). Stir in the shredded chard leaves and cook for 2 minutes until wilted.
Take the pan off the heat and let it rest for 3 minutes before serving.
Scatter the toasted pine nuts over the lamb and chard and serve warm.
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.
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Chard + lambtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12 recipes
Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).
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Turmeric + cumintop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,698 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,866 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Turmeric + coriandertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,252 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chard, olive, lamb, garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chard, olive, lamb, garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander. 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).
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