Why it works: Orange and jicama work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the salad
Arrange individual leaves of romaine on salad plates as a bed for the salad.
Remove rind and pith from oranges, and slice across to expose the sections; about 1/4" each slice. Remove seeds as necessary.
Spread oranges over lettuce in a fan pattern, sprinkling with jicama, olives, and cilantro leaves (flat leaf parsley may be used if you prefer).
Make the dressing
For the vinaigrette dressing, make a paste out of the chilies, salt, pepper, and garlic by placing in a bowl and pressing with a flat mallet or other suitable utensil.
Add fruit juices and olive oil, whisking together well.
Serve
Pour over salad and serve.
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.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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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Orange + jicamatop 5% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together21 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,491 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Jicama + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together80 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Orange + limetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together937 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Romaine lettuce
- Forms the crisp bed that holds the other salad components.
- Oranges
- Provide sweetness and juicy citrus flavor that contrasts with the chilies.
- Jicama
- Adds a crisp, juicy texture to the salad.
- Olive oil
- Adds fat and body to the vinaigrette, carrying its flavor across the leaves.
- Canned chipotle chilis
- Add smoky heat that seasons the dressing.
- Lime juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweet oranges.
The step that matters
Make the chili paste and whisk the dressing well. Pressing the chilies, garlic and salt into a paste spreads their flavor evenly, and whisking the juices with the oil helps the dressing emulsify so it coats the leaves instead of pooling at the bottom of the plate.
Flavor stand-ins for the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, orange, jicama, olive, pepper, lime):
- Corianderbetter flavor fit
- Peppermintbetter flavor fit
- Mintbetter flavor fit
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, orange, jicama, olive, pepper, lime. 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).
“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.
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