Why it works: Chicory and apple work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and 15 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 12Ingredients
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.
Whisk the vegetable oil, honey, lemon juice, chopped shallot, Dijon mustard and poppy seeds together in a large bowl for about 3 minutes until smooth and slightly thickened.
Add the sliced apples to the dressing and toss for about 2 minutes so they are well coated and less likely to brown.
Add the salad leaves, chicory leaves and halved cherry tomatoes to the bowl.
Scatter the chopped walnuts over the salad and toss gently for about 1 minute to combine everything evenly with the dressing.
Divide among plates or a serving platter and serve straight away.
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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Chicory + appletop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Shallot + mustardtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together842 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Apple + honeytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together567 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Chicory + walnuttop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together35 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chicory + mustardtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together44 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 cherry tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicory, apple, walnut, honey, lemon, shallot, mustard):
- Orangebetter flavor fit
- Grapebetter flavor fit
- Pearbetter flavor fit
- Cherry tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicory, apple, walnut, honey, lemon, shallot, mustard. 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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