Name: Green Spinach Food Coloring
Yield: ¼ cup (60 g)
Ingredients: 100 g washed spinach leaves; ½ cup (125 ml ) water; 3 tablespoons white granulated sugar; ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Why it works: Spinach and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Green Spinach Food Coloring

¼ cup (60 g)

Ingredients

100 g washed spinach leaves
½ cup (125 ml ) water
3 tablespoons white granulated sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

Blanch the spinach by boiling in a large volume of water for 2 minutes (until bright green) then draining and quickly transferring to cold water. Let rest 1–2 minutes.
Drain the spinach and blend it to a purée with the ½ cup (125 ml) water.
Using a cheesecloth, strain the purée into a bowl to extract the juice.
Pour the juice into a pan and add sugar.
Turn the heat to medium-high, and stir to dissolve the sugar.
Skim off and discard any foam that collects at the surface of the liquid.
Turn the heat to high and boil until the liquid reduces to a single-thread consistency.
Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
Cool slightly, then pour into an airtight jar and cool completely.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

68Calories

1 gProtein

0 gFat

18 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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.

Spinach + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,109 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Spinach + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,033 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon):

Arrowrootfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Kalefits better
Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Lemon Whey33 recipes

Lemon Wine31 recipes

Lemon Squash10 recipes

Lemon Essence8 recipes

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Green Spinach Food Coloring