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Going Away Dinner

This meal was my last full meal with all of my family before I head out to California. Without question, my favorite times are those when I am sur

By naturallyella · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Quinoa and spinach share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 79 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

5-6
Prep5 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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 olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey together in a small bowl until smooth and combined.

  2. Cut the cucumber into ¼-inch (6 mm) thick half moons and dice the green onions.

  3. Crumble the feta into a large bowl. Add the cooked quinoa, cucumber and green onions and toss to mix.

  4. Pour the dressing over the quinoa mixture and toss well so everything is evenly coated.

  5. If using, fold in the baby spinach (optional) and toss gently until it begins to wilt.

  6. Let the salad sit for about 10 minutes so the flavors blend, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

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. Quinoa + spinachtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together79 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Cucumber + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cucumber + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together355 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the spinach

The recipe marks spinach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quinoa, cucumber, onion, olive, vinegar, honey):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Broccoliabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quinoa, cucumber, onion, olive, vinegar, honey. 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).