Why it works: Wakame and sesame work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 10 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 2Ingredients
Contains: soy, sesame (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.
Soak the dried wakame in a large bowl of water for about 10 minutes until softened and expanded. Drain, squeeze out excess water, and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Pour boiling water over the dried wood ear mushrooms and soak for about 10 minutes until soft. Drain, trim off any hard stems, and slice thinly.
Toast the white sesame seeds in a dry small pan over medium heat, shaking often, for about 2 minutes until pale golden. Tip out to cool.
Whisk the red miso, mirin, apple cider vinegar, a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of soft brown sugar in a small bowl until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.
Cut the carrot into thin matchsticks. Cut the apple half into thin matchsticks as well, keeping them in a separate small bowl.
Finely chop the small handful of coriander. Roughly chop the other handful of coriander and set it aside for garnish.
Combine the wakame, mushrooms, carrot and chopped small-handful coriander in a bowl. Add about half the dressing and toss well to coat.
Add the apple to the bowl with the remaining dressing and toss gently so the apple does not discolour too quickly.
Chill the salad for about 5 minutes if you have time, then divide between two plates.
Top with the toasted sesame seeds and the reserved coriander and serve straight away.
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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Wakame + sesametop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Sesame + misotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together121 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Wakame + misotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Carrot + coriandertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,296 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Seaweed + misotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together18 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wakame, seaweed, mushroom, carrot, coriander, sesame, miso):
- Avocadobetter flavor fit
- Limebetter flavor fit
- Lemonbetter flavor fit
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wakame, seaweed, mushroom, carrot, coriander, sesame, miso. 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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