Name: Sweet Potato & Apple Salad with Chipotle Lime Dressing
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice; 1 large apple, such as Fuji, Gala, or Granny Smith, cut into 1/2-inch chunks; 1/2 medium red bell pepper, chopped; 1/2 green pepper, chopped; 1 celery stalk, chopped; 1/4 red onion, chopped; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro; 2 chipotle chilies en adobo; 1/4 cup lime juice; 1 tablespoon honey or molasses; 2 tablespoons tomato catsup; 1 clove garlic, peeled; 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Why it works: Sweet potato and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 177 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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.

Sweet potato + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together177 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + limetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together305 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sweet potato, pepper, celery, onion, lime, honey, tomato):

Avocadofits better
Mangofits better
Lemonfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, pepper, celery, onion, lime, honey, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1

Sweet Potato & Apple Salad with Chipotle Lime Dressing