Why it works: Lime and avocado match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,117 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 2Ingredients
Contains: wheat, shellfish (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.
Toast the breadcrumbs in a dry frying pan over medium heat, stirring often, for about 2 minutes until golden. Tip them onto a plate to cool.
Make the dressing: in a small bowl, whisk the lime juice with a drizzle of olive oil, the Tabasco to taste and the chopped coriander.
Divide the young spinach between two plates or spread it over a shallow serving dish.
Scatter the avocado chunks and halved cherry tomatoes over the spinach.
Flake the white crabmeat, checking for any bits of shell, and arrange it over the salad.
Spoon the dressing over the salad and toss gently so the leaves are lightly coated.
Scatter the toasted breadcrumbs on top 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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Lime + avocadotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,117 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lime + coriandertop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,536 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Coriander + avocadotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,094 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Olive + avocadotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,376 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Spinach + avocadotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together188 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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 (olive, lime, sauce, coriander, spinach, avocado):
- Lemonbetter flavor fit
- Mangobetter flavor fit
- Coconutbetter flavor fit
- Cherry tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, lime, sauce, coriander, spinach, avocado. 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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