Why it works: Wild rice and broccoli share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 18 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 12Ingredients
Contains: 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.
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly wipe a 9x13-inch baking dish with a little of the broth.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the broth in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes, until softening.
Add the diced mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, until they release their liquid and it cooks off.
Bring a pan of boiling water to a boil, add the broccoli florets, and cook for 3 minutes. Drain well.
Sprinkle half of the almond flour over the mushroom mixture and stir for 1 minute. Gradually stir in the remaining broth and simmer for 3 minutes, until thickened.
Stir in the cooked wild rice, broccoli, sea salt and rubbed sage until evenly combined. Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Mix the remaining almond flour with a splash of broth until crumbly, then scatter it evenly over the top.
Bake uncovered for 20 minutes, until bubbling and the top is lightly golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
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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Wild rice + broccolitop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together18 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Wild rice + flourtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together56 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Celery + sagetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together718 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Broccoli + almondtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together206 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Almond + flourtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,450 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 (wild rice, mushroom, celery, broccoli, almond, flour, sage):
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Lettucebetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wild rice, mushroom, celery, broccoli, almond, flour, sage. 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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