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Donna Hay's Halloumi, Fig and Pomegranate Salad Recipe

Donna Hay tosses crispy halloumi together with green figs, mint leaves and pomegranate seeds for a fantastically fresh starter.

By lovefood · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and pomegranate share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hydroxybutan-2-one, which smells cheesy, buttery. The science ↓

The recipe

4 people
Prep10 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By lovefood. 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. Fig + pomegranatetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hydroxybutan-2-one (cheesy, buttery).

  2. Mint + pomegranatetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Olive + halloumitop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  4. Red wine + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, halloumi, fig, pomegranate, red wine, vinegar):

  1. Peppermintabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Mintthe original
  3. Rosemaryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, halloumi, fig, pomegranate, red wine, vinegar. 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).