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Edamame, Carrot, and Goat Cheese Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

In the town where I went to college, there was a place that would make salads to order. The place was stocked with every sort of ingredient one may want

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Why it works: Lettuce and goat cheese work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 37 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts, soy (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. If using frozen edamame, thaw it, then steam it in a basket over a pan of boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes until tender. Cool slightly.

  2. Peel the carrots and cut them into thin matchsticks or coins. Halve, pit and peel the avocado, then cut it into cubes. Tear the lettuce into bite-size pieces.

  3. If using canned chickpeas, drain and rinse them. Set aside.

  4. Make the dressing: in a small bowl or jar, whisk the lime juice, walnut oil, honey and cilantro, chopping the cilantro finely first or blending until smooth.

  5. Divide the lettuce between two plates or bowls. Top with the cooked brown rice, edamame, carrots, chickpeas and avocado.

  6. Crumble the goat cheese over the salads.

  7. Drizzle the cilantro-lime dressing over the salads just before serving, and toss gently if you like.

By naturallyella. 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. Lettuce + goat cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Avocado + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,117 recipes

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

  3. Avocado + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together464 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + chickpeatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Lettuce + walnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together491 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 walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, carrot, avocado, lettuce, chickpea, goat cheese, lime):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Sesameabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Lentilsabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, carrot, avocado, lettuce, chickpea, goat cheese, lime. 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).