Why it works: Seaweed and salmon work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 39 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: wheat, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Put the wakame in a bowl, cover with water and soak for 10 minutes until softened, then drain and squeeze dry. Peel the mouli and cut it into thin matchsticks. Slice the spring onions, chop the coriander, cut the pak choi into quarters and cut the tofu into small cubes.
Heat the grill to high and line a tray with foil. Pat the salmon dry, brush it all over with the sunflower oil and sprinkle with Japanese seven-spice powder to taste.
Grill the salmon 4 to 5 minutes per side until the thickest part reaches 145°F (63°C) or the flesh is opaque and flakes easily. Rest for 3 minutes.
Pour the dashi or miso stock into a large pan with the mirin and dark soy sauce. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat.
Add the tofu and pak choi to the simmering broth and cook for 3 minutes until the pak choi is just tender.
Add the drained wakame and the sliced spring onions to the broth and heat through for 1 minute.
Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the udon noodles and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until tender. Drain and divide between four warm bowls.
Ladle the hot broth, tofu and pak choi over the noodles. Top each bowl with a piece of salmon, mouli matchsticks and coriander, and serve with extra seven-spice to taste.
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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Seaweed + salmontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together39 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Miso + tofutop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together75 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Miso + wakametop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Miso + seaweedtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together18 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).
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Tofu + sunflowertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together40 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the seaweed
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (miso, sauce, tofu, onion, wakame, salmon, sunflower):
- Welsh onionbetter flavor fit
- Chivebetter flavor fit
- Cucumberabout as good a flavor fit
- Seaweedthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against miso, sauce, tofu, onion, wakame, salmon, sunflower. 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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