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Balsamic Tuna Salad

"White tuna, garbanzo beans, veggies and balsamic dressing pack a protein, vitamin, and fiber punch for a healthy lunch that will stick with you."

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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: fish (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. Drain the tuna and garbanzo beans, rinse the beans well, and flake the tuna into a large bowl.

  2. Halve the black olives. Coarsely chop the cucumber, red bell pepper, green onions and parsley, and add them to the bowl with the tuna.

  3. Finely mince the garlic clove. In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic, dried oregano and black pepper.

  4. Add the garbanzo beans and olives to the bowl, pour the dressing over, and toss gently until everything is evenly coated.

  5. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes to let the flavors meld.

  6. Divide the baby spinach among four plates or bowls. Spoon the tuna salad over the spinach and serve chilled.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beans + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,080 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Olive + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Olive + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,304 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (albacore tuna, beans, olive, pepper, onion, parsley, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against albacore tuna, beans, olive, pepper, onion, parsley, vinegar. 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).