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Miso Harissa Delicata Squash

I used my friend Molly Watson's recipe as a jumping off point here, and ended up with a roasted squash salad of sorts. It uses the pretty, scalloped-edged cross-cuts of the delicata squash, a few small potatoes, chopped kale, radishes, Marcona almonds - and a bold miso harissa dressing.

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Why it works: Miso and kale share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 13 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: tree nuts, 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. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Toast the nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, shaking often, until fragrant. Let cool, then chop coarsely.

  2. Whisk the white miso, harissa and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth, then whisk in the olive oil. Keep about a third of this dressing aside for the kale and the rest for the vegetables.

  3. Halve the fingerling potatoes lengthwise and cut the delicata squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and slice the squash into 1/2-inch (1 cm) half-moons.

  4. Toss the potatoes and squash with the larger portion of dressing and spread them on a baking sheet in a single layer, cut sides down where possible.

  5. Roast for 25 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the squash is caramelized at the edges.

  6. Meanwhile, put the chopped kale in a bowl with the reserved dressing and massage it with your hands for about 1 minute until softened.

  7. Arrange the kale on a serving platter, top with the roasted vegetables, sliced radishes and chopped nuts, then spoon any dressing left in the pan over the top.

By 101cookbooks. 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. Miso + kaletop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Potato + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Lemon + kaletop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Olive + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Olive + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,849 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, olive, miso, harissa, lemon, kale, almond):

  1. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  2. Broccolibetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, olive, miso, harissa, lemon, kale, almond. 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).