Name: Wild Monterey Bay Salmon with Lemon-Mint Couscous, Cucumber Threads, and Dill-Shallot Vinaigrette Recipe
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups couscous; 2 cups water; 2 tablespoons salt; 7 tablespoons olive oil, divided; 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts; 6 tablespoons lemon juice; 1/4 cup packed julienned mint leaves; 1/4 cup packed julienned parsley leaves; 1 English cucumber; 1/4 cup crème fraiche; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; Salt; 2 cups sliced red onion; 1 1/2 cups red-label rice wine vinegar; 1/4 cup sugar; 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; 6 (5-ounce) portions salmon; Salt and pepper; 3 tablespoons canola oil; 1 English cucumber, sliced into rounds; Dill-Shallot Vinaigrette

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 ↓

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pine + lemontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together480 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,998 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + pinetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,062 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Mint + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together884 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, pine, lemon, mint, parsley, cucumber, onion):

Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits better
Pistachiofits better
Nutsthe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Pine	1 oz (28g)	191
Couscous	1 cup cooked (157g)	176
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Red Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0

Wild Monterey Bay Salmon with Lemon-Mint Couscous, Cucumber Threads, and Dill-Shallot Vinaigrette Recipe