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Arugula Caprese Salad

"A twist on the typical Caprese salad. This can be a side dish or entire meal."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Arugula and basil work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 103 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep10 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. Place the baby arugula in a large salad bowl.

  2. Add the halved grape tomatoes and the small fresh mozzarella balls to the bowl.

  3. In a small bowl, whisk the basil paste into the balsamic vinaigrette until smooth.

  4. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is evenly coated.

  5. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste, if desired.

  6. Just before serving, sprinkle the garlic seasoned croutons over the top, if using them.

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. Arugula + basiltop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Tomato + basiltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,979 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Basil + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Garlic + basiltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (arugula, grape, tomato, basil, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Oreganobetter flavor fit
  3. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against arugula, grape, tomato, basil, pepper. 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).