Why it works: Banana and kale work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 1Ingredients
Contains: milk, peanut (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Add the milk or plain yogurt, peeled banana, torn kale pieces, peanut butter and honey to a blender.
Add the optional ground flax seed, optional shredded coconut and optional cocoa powder to the blender if using them.
Add the crushed ice on top of the other ingredients.
Blend on high for about 1 to 2 minutes until completely smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
Taste and blend briefly again if you want it sweeter or thicker, then pour into a glass and serve right away.
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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Banana + kaletop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together29 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Banana + coconuttop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together549 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Peanut + coconuttop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Banana + honeytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together395 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the coconut
The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, milk, kale, peanut, butter, honey, cocoa powder):
- Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against banana, milk, kale, peanut, butter, honey, cocoa powder. 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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