Name: Avocado Cucumber Salad with Carrot-Sesame Dressing
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons Sesame Seeds; 2 Small Carrots, Roughly Chopped; ½ Small Shallot, Roughly Chopped; 1 Tablespoon Ginger, Roughly Chopped; 2-½ Tablespoons White Wine Vinegar; 2 Tablespoons Honey; 1 Tablespoon Water; 4 Tablespoons Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper; 1 head Sesame Oil; 2 Bibb Lettuce; 2 Small Cucumbers, Peeled, Cut In Half Lengthwise, Seeded, And Sliced

Why it works: Carrot and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,377 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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.

Carrot + gingertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sesame + gingertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sesame + shallottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together77 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Shallot + gingertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together565 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sesame, shallot, ginger, white wine, vinegar, honey, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Welsh onionfits better
Mustardfits better
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sesame, shallot, ginger, white wine, vinegar, honey, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Avocado Cucumber Salad with Carrot-Sesame Dressing