Why it works: Carrot and yogurt work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 578 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 2Ingredients
Contains: milk, 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.
Warm the pitta breads in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side, or in a toaster, until soft and warmed through.
In a small bowl, stir the harissa into the Greek yogurt until evenly mixed to make the spicy yogurt.
Put the drained and rinsed chickpeas in a bowl and mash them roughly with a fork, leaving some pieces whole.
Add the grated beetroot, grated carrot and torn mint leaves to the chickpeas and toss everything together.
Split each warm pitta open along one edge to make a pocket.
Spread the spicy yogurt inside each pitta, then divide the chickpea and vegetable mixture between them.
Serve the pittas straight away while 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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Carrot + yogurttop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together578 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Beetroot + chickpeatop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together23 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chickpea + harissatop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together58 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Beetroot + carrottop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together698 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Mint + harissatop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together64 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the harissa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, beetroot, carrot, mint, chickpea, yogurt):
- Cuminbetter flavor fit
- Dillbetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Harissathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beetroot, carrot, mint, chickpea, yogurt. 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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