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Blue Spinach Salad

"Small amounts of the rich blue cheese goodies add just the right flavor to a very fresh tasting salad. This is my nothing-else-could-possibly-make-me-happy-for-dinner salad. Happy eating!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and blue cheese work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 65 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

1 serving
Prep5 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 pre-washed spinach leaves in a salad bowl.

  2. Add the rinsed and dried red grapes and the crumbled blue cheese on top of the spinach.

  3. Sprinkle the roasted, salted pumpkin seeds over the salad.

  4. If using, drizzle the blue cheese salad dressing over the salad just before serving, or serve it on the side.

  5. Toss gently to combine and serve right away.

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. Spinach + blue cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together65 recipes

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

  2. Grape + blue cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Spinach + pumpkintop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Grape + pumpkintop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Spinach + grapetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together182 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, grape, blue cheese):

  1. Applebetter flavor fit
  2. Pearbetter flavor fit
  3. Figbetter flavor fit
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, grape, blue cheese. 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).