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Apple, Pecan, Cranberry, and Avocado Spinach Salad with Balsamic Dressing

"I like using Cripp, Braeburn, or Gala apples in this yummy salad!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pecans and avocado share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

1 salad
Prep10 min

Ingredients

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.

  1. Place the baby spinach leaves in a salad bowl.

  2. Add the diced apple, diced red onion, grated carrot and diced avocado to the bowl.

  3. Scatter the dried cranberries and chopped salted pecans over the top.

  4. Drizzle the balsamic vinaigrette over the salad, starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more to taste.

  5. Toss gently until every ingredient is lightly coated, then serve right away so the apple and avocado stay fresh.

By allrecipes. 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. Pecans + avocadotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Spinach + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Spinach + avocadotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + avocadotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,653 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 (spinach, pecans, apple, carrot, avocado):

  1. Lettucebetter flavor fit
  2. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, pecans, apple, carrot, 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).