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Stir-Fried Asparagus with Shiitakes and Sesame Seeds

This quick dish pairs tender asparagus with meaty shiitake mushrooms for a satisfying vegetable stir-fry. Sesame seeds are densely nutritious and offer an array of health benefits, including cholesterol-lowering potential.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shiitake and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 142 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

By williamssonoma. 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. Shiitake + sesametop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together142 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Mushroom + white winetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,704 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Garlic + shiitaketop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together292 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Ginger + sesametop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, garlic, shiitake, mushroom, white wine, chicken, sauce):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Basilabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, garlic, shiitake, mushroom, white wine, chicken, sauce. 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).