Name: Jicama Salad
Ingredients: 1 large jicama, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced; 2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro; 2 Tbsp finely chopped mint; 3 Tbsp lime juice; 1 tsp salt

Why it works: Jicama and lime work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 80 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

1 large jicama, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp finely chopped mint
3 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt

Directions

Arrange jicama and red onion slices on a serving plate.
Sprinkle with salt, lime juice, mint, and cilantro.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

Jicama + limetop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together80 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mint + limetop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together846 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Jicama + minttop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + limetop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,263 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Jicama + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together86 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

Jicama: Provides a crisp, juicy crunch that holds its texture in a salad.
Red onion: Adds a sharp, pungent bite that mellows somewhat in the lime juice.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavors and balances the onion's sharpness.
Mint: Adds a cool, fresh aroma.
Cilantro: Adds a bright, herbal aroma.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jicama, mint, lime):

Cucumberbetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Lettucebetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jicama, mint, 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.