Name: Cucumber Dill Quinoa with Tuna
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 1 cup Quinoa, Cooked To Package Directions And Cooled (about 3 Cups Cooked); 3 Tablespoons Fresh Dill, Chopped; 1 whole Lemon Zested, And Cut Into Wedges; 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil; 1 whole Small Or 1/3 Large English Or Pickling Cucumber, Diced; 1 whole Scallion, Slided; 6 cups Salt To Taste; 5 ounces, weight Fresh Salad Greens Or Spinach, Optional, For Serving

Why it works: Quinoa and cucumber share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 85 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 3

Prep10 min

Cook30 min

Ingredients

1 cup Quinoa, Cooked To Package Directions And Cooled (about 3 Cups Cooked)
3 Tablespoons Fresh Dill, Chopped
1 whole Lemon Zested, And Cut Into Wedges
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 whole Small Or 1/3 Large English Or Pickling Cucumber, Diced
1 whole Scallion, Slided
6 cups Salt To Taste
5 ounces, weight Fresh Salad Greens Or Spinach, Optional, For Serving

Directions

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

By tastykitchen. 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.

Quinoa + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together85 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Dill + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together976 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Quinoa + spinachtop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together79 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Dill + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together530 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together355 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the spinach

The recipe marks spinach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quinoa, dill, lemon, olive, cucumber):

Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
Broccoliabout as good a flavor fit
Spinachthe original
Lettuceabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against quinoa, dill, lemon, olive, cucumber. 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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