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Watercress and Arugula Salad with Blue Cheese, Dates, and Almonds Recipe

This elegant composed salad combines classic flavors and textures: Chewy dates, crunchy almonds, and creamy blue cheese nestle with peppery arugula and watercress...

By chow · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and blue cheese 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

4 servings

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Almond + blue cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Mustard + watercresstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Mustard + arugulatop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together158 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, vinegar, honey, pepper, canola oil, dates, watercress):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Lettuceabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, vinegar, honey, pepper, canola oil, dates, watercress. 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).