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Cherry Couscous & Arugula Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

A delightful summer salad featuring fresh cherries, arugula, pistachios and goat cheese (optional) tossed in a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Feel free to substitute pearl couscous for the fine couscous shown here, or quinoa to make the salad gluten free (cook according to package directions and proceed to step 2).

By cookieandkate · From Open Recipes · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Arugula and pistachio work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and 10 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep20 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (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.

  1. Put the couscous, 2 tablespoons olive oil, the sea salt and several twists of black pepper in a heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over to cover generously, cover the bowl, and let stand 5 minutes until tender.

  2. Fluff the couscous with a fork and spread it on a plate or tray to cool to room temperature.

  3. Whisk the 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey or maple syrup or agave nectar, a generous amount of black pepper and the 1/8 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.

  4. Toast the pistachios or almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant. Cool, then chop coarsely if whole.

  5. Wash and dry the arugula. Pit, halve and quarter the cherries, and chop the celery.

  6. In a large bowl, toss the cherries and celery with about a third of the vinaigrette.

  7. Add the cooled couscous and arugula to the bowl and toss with the remaining vinaigrette until evenly coated.

  8. Top with the crumbled goat cheese and toasted nuts and serve right away.

By cookieandkate. 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.

  1. Arugula + pistachiotop 21% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Wheat + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together937 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, olive, pepper, vinegar, mustard, honey, arugula):

  1. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Figabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, olive, pepper, vinegar, mustard, honey, arugula. 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).