Why it works: Blue cheese and almond work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Assemble
Place greens, blueberries, blue cheese and red onion in a serving bowl.
Dress and serve
Whisk together olive oil, orange juice, lemon thyme leaves, shallot if desired, and salt and pepper to taste in a smaller bowl.
Toss salad with the dressing and garnish with roasted, sliced almonds.
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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Blue cheese + almondtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together24 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,632 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + thymetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,973 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Orange + thymetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together442 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Thyme + shallottop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,467 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
- Baby field greens
- Provide the leafy base that gives the salad its body and crisp texture.
- Blueberries
- Add bursts of sweetness and juiciness that contrast with the sharp cheese.
- Blue cheese
- Adds salty, tangy richness that balances the sweet blueberries and orange juice.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Carries the flavors of the dressing and coats the leaves for a silky mouthfeel.
- Orange juice
- Adds sweetness and acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Flavor stand-ins for the shallot
The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, blue cheese, onion, olive, orange, lemon, thyme):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Shallotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, blue cheese, onion, olive, orange, lemon, thyme. 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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