Why it works: Jicama and lime work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 80 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 5Ingredients
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Peel the jicama and cut it into thin matchsticks. Place them in a large bowl.
Slice the yellow pepper after removing the stem and seeds. Slice the red onion thinly and place it in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, then drain.
Juice both limes into a small bowl and add the zest. Whisk in the olive oil, salt and pepper to make the lime vinaigrette.
Add the chopped arugula, chopped lettuce, sliced yellow pepper, drained red onion and chopped parsley or cilantro to the jicama.
Pour the lime vinaigrette over the salad and toss well until everything is evenly coated.
Taste and adjust the salt and pepper if needed. Serve right away while the vegetables are crisp.
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.
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Jicama + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together80 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,491 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lime + parsleytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together547 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Jicama + lettucetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together26 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jicama, lime, pepper, arugula, lettuce, parsley, olive):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Broccolibetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against jicama, lime, pepper, arugula, lettuce, parsley, olive. 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).
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