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Quinoa Supergreen Salad

Pronounced Keen-wa, this supergrain makes a cheap, yet satisfying main course meal for two or a side for four

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Why it works: Quinoa and avocado share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 54 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep10 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy (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. Rinse the quinoa, then simmer it in a pan of water for about 12 minutes until tender. Drain well and let it cool slightly.

  2. While the quinoa cooks, add the frozen edamame and peas to a separate pan of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water.

  3. In a large bowl, whisk the lemon juice with a good drizzle of olive oil and the ground cumin to make a dressing.

  4. Add the warm quinoa, edamame, peas, spring onions, cucumber, mint and parsley to the dressing and toss well to combine.

  5. Gently fold in the diced avocado just before serving so it keeps its shape.

  6. Serve the salad at room temperature or chilled.

By bbcgoodfood. 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. Quinoa + avocadotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Quinoa + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together96 recipes

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

  3. Cumin + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,188 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Lemon + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,137 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, avocado, lemon, cumin, beans, peas, mint):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  3. Cucumberbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quinoa, avocado, lemon, cumin, beans, peas, mint. 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).