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Spicy Mandarin Spinach Salad

"Between the sweetness of the mandarin oranges and the cayenne-spiced pecans, flavor explodes in each bite of this salad. Top it off with Chinese five spice mustard dressing to really make your taste buds happy."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mandarin orange and spinach share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

3 servings
Prep15 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (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 small skillet over medium heat. Add the pecan halves, white sugar and dried rosemary, and stir for 3 to 4 minutes until the pecans are fragrant and the sugar coats them. Spread them on a plate to cool.

  2. In a small bowl, whisk the reserved mandarin liquid, canola oil, olive oil, Dusseldorf-style German mustard, ground cloves, Chinese five-spice powder and cayenne pepper until smooth.

  3. Place the fresh spinach leaves and chopped green onions in a large salad bowl.

  4. Add the drained mandarin oranges to the spinach and green onions.

  5. Pour about two-thirds of the dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat the leaves.

  6. Scatter the cooled pecans over the top and serve right away, passing the remaining dressing on the side.

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. Mandarin orange + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Olive + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,489 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Olive + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Mustard + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together503 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 clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mandarin orange, canola oil, olive, mustard, butter, sugar, rosemary):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  3. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mandarin orange, canola oil, olive, mustard, butter, sugar, rosemary. 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).