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Sweet and Sour Spinach Jicama Salad

"Really refreshing salad."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Jicama and sesame work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 13 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep20 min

Ingredients

Contains: tree nuts, sesame (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. Whisk the white sugar, olive oil, distilled white vinegar, onion juice, prepared yellow mustard, salt and onion powder in a bowl until the sugar dissolves and the dressing is smooth.

  2. Toast the sesame seeds and pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 3 to 4 minutes until lightly golden. Let them cool.

  3. Wash the spinach and dry it well. Remove any tough stems and place the leaves in a large salad bowl.

  4. Peel and dice the jicama, then add it to the bowl with the spinach. Add the thinly sliced onion.

  5. Sprinkle the bacon bits, toasted sesame seeds and toasted pine nuts over the salad.

  6. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is evenly coated. 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. Jicama + sesametop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Spinach + sesametop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together203 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Onion + sesametop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Olive + sesametop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 (sugar, olive, vinegar, mustard, spinach, jicama, sesame):

  1. Lettucebetter flavor fit
  2. Broccolibetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, olive, vinegar, mustard, spinach, jicama, sesame. 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).