Why it works: Spinach and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,433 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: pasta
Directions
If using fresh spinach, wash and de-stem the leaves. Steam/microwave the spinach until cooked. Place it in a blender with the garlic and milk. Whir until you have a nice sauce consistency. Start with less milk if you like a thicker sauce, add more, as needed. It depends on how much spinach "juice" you use. Taste the sauce, and add salt, as desired. Serve on top of spaghetti or other pasta makes 2-3 servings, with pasta notes: this makes a bright green sauce...kinda weird to look at but very good tasting. It"s a real pretty presentation if you serve it over spaghetti, half green, half tomato sauce. It"s especially good with parmesan, if you are lacto-veg. Use fat free, of course, or a tiny bit of "the good stuff". Do not use vanilla flavored soy milk. I tried it. Yuk
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
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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Spinach + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Spinach + soy milktop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together9 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Garlic + soy milktop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together52 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Soy milk + milktop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together55 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Spinach + milktop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together914 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, soy milk, milk):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
- Garlicthe original
- Celeryabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, soy milk, milk. 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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