Name: Wild and Brown Rice Salad with Roasted Brazil Nuts
Ingredients: FOR THE SALAD:; 300 gm wild rice, soaked for 2 hours; 300 gm brown rice, perhaps "Sunbrown Quick"; 400 gm brazil nuts; 2 lrg handfuls baby spinach; 1 lrg Spanish onion; 4 tbl currants; 1 x granny smith apple, cut into matchsticks; 3 tbl parsley, chopped; 3 tbl coriander, chopped; 3 tbl fresh chives, chopped; FOR THE DRESSING:; 2 tbl white wine vinegar; 2 tbl lemon juice; 6 tbl olive oil; zest and juice of 1 orange; salt and freshly ground pepper

Why it works: Wild rice and spinach share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Wild rice + spinachtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together12 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Spinach + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,025 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Wild rice + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together69 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Wild rice + brazil nuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1 recipe

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Wild rice + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Wild rice: Provides chewy structure and a nutty flavour that holds up to the dressing.
Brown rice: Adds firm, chewy texture and a hearty body to the salad.
Brazil nuts: Add rich fat, crunch and a toasted, buttery flavour.
Olive oil: Adds fat and moisture, carrying flavour through the dressing and coating the rice.
Spanish onion: Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that mellows somewhat in the warm rice.
White wine vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and nuts.

The step that matters

Dressing the rice while it is still warm. Warm rice absorbs the oil and acid of the dressing more readily, so flavour penetrates the grains. Cold rice stays bland on the surface and the dressing can pool on the bowl.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wild rice, rice, brazil nut, spinach, onion, apple, parsley):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wild rice, rice, brazil nut, spinach, onion, apple, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Wild Rice	1 cup cooked (164g)	166
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Salad	not in our table	0
Brazil Nut	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0

Wild and Brown Rice Salad with Roasted Brazil Nuts