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A Better Broccoli Salad

I was craving a fresh and crunchy broccoli salad, but I wanted to make some changes that would cut back on the fat, calories and added sugar. I also have to admit, I am not a big fan of imitation bacon, used in some preparations, so I wanted to use just enough crispy center cut bacon to give it great flavor.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Broccoli and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,440 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep5 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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.

  1. Broccoli + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Olive + yogurttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Carrot + sunflowertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together279 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Broccoli + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,292 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 (broccoli, carrot, sunflower, sugar, olive, yogurt, agave):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Beetrootbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against broccoli, carrot, sunflower, sugar, olive, yogurt, agave. 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).