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Basic Quinoa Salad Recipe

Throw some fresh tomatoes, briny olives, and pieces of salty cheese into quinoa, and the slightly boring but healthy grain gets a flavorful face-lift.What to...

By chow · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Basic Quinoa Salad Recipe

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Basic Quinoa Salad Recipe

6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

785Calories
35 gProtein
46 gFat
56 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Quinoa1 cup cooked (185g)222
Ricotta Cheese1/2 cup (124g) part-skim174
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Feta Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Olive1 large (4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By chow. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Quinoa + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

  4. Quinoa + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quinoa, tomato, olive, pepper, cheese):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quinoa, tomato, olive, pepper, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.