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Dana's Taco Salad

"This is my health-oriented twist to my Aunt Linda's recipe. Lentils add fiber and protein without fat and without compromising the taste! For additional texture, sprinkle in some crushed corn chips."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep25 min
Cook50 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Rinse the dry lentils, then add them to a small saucepan with 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook about 25 minutes until tender. Drain any extra liquid and set aside.

  2. While the lentils cook, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking it up, for 8 to 10 minutes until no pink remains and it reaches 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part.

  3. Drain excess fat from the skillet. Sprinkle in the taco seasoning mix, add the second 1 cup water, and stir. Simmer over medium-low heat about 5 minutes until slightly thickened.

  4. Chop the iceberg lettuce and dice the tomato. Chop the pitted black olives. Drain and rinse the kidney beans.

  5. Peel, pit and dice the avocado just before serving so it does not brown.

  6. Divide the chopped lettuce among 4 bowls or plates. Top each with the cooked lentils, seasoned turkey, kidney beans, tomato, olives and avocado.

  7. Drizzle each salad with Catalina dressing and serve right away.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Avocado + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,385 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lettuce + avocadotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together464 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Lentils + lettucetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  5. Avocado + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, turkey, lettuce, avocado, tomato, olive):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  3. Cashew nutbetter flavor fit
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, turkey, lettuce, avocado, tomato, olive. 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).