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Spinach, Pear and Pomegranate Salad

Pomegranate seeds and walnuts add extra antioxidant power to this seriously nutritious—and delicious—salad. Slice and add the pears just before serving the salad, as the flesh will brown very quickly. For easier prep, purchase fresh pomegranate seeds at the market.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and pomegranate share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 36 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (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. Spinach + pomegranatetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together36 recipes

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

  2. Honey + peartop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Walnut + pomegranatetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together71 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cider + peartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 (cider, vinegar, olive, honey, mustard, pepper, spinach):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  3. Chickpeaabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, olive, honey, mustard, pepper, spinach. 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).