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Butternut Squash with Persian Pistachio Pesto, Feta and Pomegranate Seeds

Big chunks of butternut squash are roasted until the edges are nicely caramelised and then topped with a pistachio pesto, feta and pomegranate seeds.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and coriander share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 78 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (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 bbcfood. 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. Pistachio + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Parsley + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together668 recipes

    Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).

  3. Pomegranate + pistachiotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Coriander + dilltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the dill

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut squash, olive, pepper, pomegranate, pistachio, coriander, parsley):

  1. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  2. Fennelbetter flavor fit
  3. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  4. Dillthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut squash, olive, pepper, pomegranate, pistachio, coriander, parsley. 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).