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Fig and Arugula Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing

Add a few fresh figs to some peppery arugula and finish it off with a honey-mustard dressing for an easy, interesting side salad.

By chow · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and arugula work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 158 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

The recipe

4 - 6 servings
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Whisk together the olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and honey in a small bowl until smooth and emulsified.

  2. Season the dressing with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

  3. Place the arugula in a large salad bowl.

  4. Add the sliced figs to the arugula.

  5. Drizzle the dressing over the salad just before serving.

  6. Toss gently until the leaves and figs are evenly coated, then season once more with salt and pepper if needed and serve immediately.

By chow. 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. Mustard + arugulatop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together158 recipes

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

  2. Honey + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together227 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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