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Dandelion Pesto

"Yes, the notorious dandelion, or taraxacum officinale has long been a nutritious supplement to salads, stir-frys, soups, condiments, and medicinally. Dent-de-Lion or Teeth of the Lion as the French say, is a plant worthy of respect being off the charts in vitamins A,B,C,D, potassium and other minerals. Below is a hearty pesto that will be the talk of the dinner party. So if you are feeling adventurous give it a try, you will not be disappointed. NOTE: Only harvest from organic gardens or untreated lawns."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Dandelion and garlic share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

2 cups
Prep10 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. Wash the dandelion greens well and pat them dry, removing any tough stems.

  2. Add the dandelion greens and crushed garlic to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

  3. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and pulse again to combine.

  4. With the processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto is smooth but still slightly textured.

  5. Season with salt and red pepper flakes to taste, if using, and pulse once more to blend.

  6. Serve right away or refrigerate in a sealed jar, covered with a thin layer of olive oil, for up to 1 week.

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. Dandelion + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Olive + parmesan cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Garlic + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,044 recipes

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

  5. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dandelion, olive, parmesan cheese, pepper):

  1. Basilabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Garlicthe original
  3. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against dandelion, olive, parmesan cheese, 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).