Name: Salad with Broccoli, Dried Cherry, White Beans, Sunflower Seeds & Creamy Basil Dressing
Yield: Serves 2 (as entree salad)
Ingredients: 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves; 2 tbsp finely chopped shallots; 2 tbsp plain (non-fat) Greek yogurt; 1/4 tsp kosher salt; 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 5 tbsp olive oil; 2 cups (packed) red leaf lettuce (bite-sized pieces); 2 cups (packed) green leaf lettuce (bite-sized pieces); 3 cups small broccoli florets; 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp dried cherries; 1 cup canned cannellini beans, rinsed; 3 tbsp sunflower seeds

Why it works: Lettuce and broccoli match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 181 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Lettuce + broccolitop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together181 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Lettuce + beanstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Shallot + lettucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together157 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Broccoli + beanstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together339 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Basil + olivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, yogurt, pepper, olive, lettuce, broccoli, beans):

Capersfits better
Cuminfits better
Tarragonfits better
Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, yogurt, pepper, olive, lettuce, broccoli, beans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sunflower Seed	1 oz (28g) hulled	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Leaf	not in our table	0
Cannellini Bean	not in our table	0

Salad with Broccoli, Dried Cherry, White Beans, Sunflower Seeds & Creamy Basil Dressing