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Asparagus-Zucchini Rice

"This is a great side dish - fast, flexible and easy (cooks in 1 pan)! I serve it with fish, but it would also go great with chicken. You can use it with any style of rice. Try different vegetables, too!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 244 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep15 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring, until softened.

  2. Stir in the oregano, basil, thyme, garlic powder and cayenne pepper and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.

  3. Add the rice and stir to coat it in the butter and spices for about 1 minute.

  4. Pour in the water and add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 12 minutes.

  5. Scatter the asparagus pieces and sliced zucchini over the rice. Cover and cook for about 8 minutes more, until the rice is tender and the water is absorbed.

  6. Remove the pan from the heat and let it stand covered for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, adjust the salt and pepper, and serve hot.

By allrecipes. 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. Asparagus + ricetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Oregano + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Oregano + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together791 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  5. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 (butter, asparagus, oregano, basil, thyme, garlic, pepper):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, asparagus, oregano, basil, thyme, garlic, pepper. 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).