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Warm Quinoa Salad with Grilled Halloumi

This iron-rich, veggie dish is a great source of iron and uses gluten-free quinoa for an extra dose of protein

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Why it works: Quinoa and halloumi work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and 2 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 3
Prep15 min
Cook25 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. Put the quinoa and vegetable stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce to low and simmer for about 15 minutes until the stock is absorbed. Take off the heat, keep covered for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

  2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced red onion and the large pinch of sugar and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring often, until soft and golden. Tip into a large bowl.

  3. Whisk the lemon zest and juice with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to make a dressing.

  4. Wipe out the frying pan and heat it over medium-high. Add the halloumi slices in a single layer and cook for about 2 minutes per side until golden and crisp at the edges.

  5. Add the warm quinoa, sliced roasted pepper and chopped parsley to the bowl with the onion. Pour over the lemon dressing and toss well.

  6. Divide the quinoa salad between plates and top with the hot grilled halloumi slices. Serve warm.

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 + halloumitop 27% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Olive + halloumitop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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 (olive, pepper, quinoa, parsley, lemon, sugar, halloumi):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper, quinoa, parsley, lemon, sugar, halloumi. 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).