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Buffalo Blue Cheese Quinoa and Cauliflower Bake

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Why it works: Blue cheese and buffalo share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

(6 servings)
Prep15 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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.

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Use a 9x13-inch baking dish.

  2. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in the quinoa, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer about 15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, keep covered for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

  3. Cook the diced onion and minced garlic in a skillet with a splash of water over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring, until soft.

  4. Place the chopped cauliflower in a pot with a splash of water, cover, and cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes until just tender. Drain well.

  5. In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, onion, garlic, cauliflower, buffalo sauce, Greek yogurt, parsley, blue cheese, and most of the shredded cheddar. Add extra buffalo sauce if you want more heat. Stir well.

  6. Spread the mixture in the baking dish and sprinkle the reserved cheddar on top.

  7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until bubbling and the cheese is melted and lightly golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

By backtoherroots. 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. Blue cheese + buffalotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + buffalotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  4. Cauliflower + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  5. Blue cheese + yogurttop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quinoa, cauliflower, garlic, blue cheese, buffalo, sauce, yogurt):

  1. Spinachabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Broccoliabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quinoa, cauliflower, garlic, blue cheese, buffalo, sauce, yogurt. 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).