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Why it works: Chia and kale share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 7 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

(1 smoothie)
Prep5 min

Ingredients

Contains: tree nuts (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. Pour the vanilla almond milk into a blender.

  2. Add the chia seeds and ground flax seed to the almond milk and let them sit for 1 to 2 minutes so they begin to soften.

  3. Add the banana, spinach, and torn kale pieces to the blender.

  4. Add a few ice cubes to cool the smoothie.

  5. Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until smooth and no leaf pieces remain. Stop and scrape down the sides if needed.

  6. Pour into a glass and drink right away.

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. Chia + kaletop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Vanilla + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Almond + chiatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together68 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Spinach + kaletop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the kale

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, almond, milk, chia, banana, spinach):

  1. Arrowrootbetter flavor fit
  2. Beetrootabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Kalethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, almond, milk, chia, banana, spinach. 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).