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Tropical Shrimp Spinach Salad

"This salad is so light and refreshing. Perfect for a warm summer's day, and hearty enough for a dinner meal as well. You will feel yourself transported to a tropical setting as you indulge in this yummy salad!"

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Why it works: Mango and goat cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and 4 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

The recipe

4 salads
Prep20 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts, shellfish (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. Toast the sweetened flaked coconut in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring often, for 2 to 3 minutes until golden. Transfer to a plate to cool.

  2. In a bowl, whisk the pineapple juice, orange juice, the 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste until combined. Set the dressing aside.

  3. Heat the 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Add the cooked shrimp, season with salt and pepper to taste, and stir for 2 minutes until warmed through.

  4. Divide the baby spinach leaves among 4 plates or bowls.

  5. Top each salad with diced mango, warm shrimp, chopped macadamia nuts, dried banana chips, crumbled goat cheese, and toasted coconut.

  6. Drizzle each salad with the 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. Mango + goat cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + mangotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).

  3. Orange + mangotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Olive + goat cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together557 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Pineapple + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the macadamia nut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, orange, olive, pepper, shrimp, spinach, mango):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Peasbetter flavor fit
  3. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  4. Macadamia nutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, orange, olive, pepper, shrimp, spinach, mango. 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).