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Carrot, Tomato, and Spinach Quinoa Pilaf

"I remember my aunt telling me about quinoa, saying it was such a wonderfully healthy food and what do you know? It's kosher for Passover! I decided to beef up my quinoa with some fresh vegetables, cooked until they are just tender without becoming mushy. As a side dish this serves 4-5, but I've been known to eat half of it as a meal on its own."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Quinoa and tomato work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 194 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

2 1/2 cups
Prep10 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes until softened.

  2. Add the chopped carrot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Stir in the quinoa and cook for 2 minutes, stirring, until lightly toasted.

  4. Add the water, bouillon granules, black pepper and thyme. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.

  5. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the chopped tomato and baby spinach, cover and let stand for 3 minutes until the spinach wilts.

  6. Fluff the pilaf with a fork and serve warm.

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. Quinoa + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

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

  3. Quinoa + spinachtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together79 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 (olive, quinoa, chicken, pepper, thyme, carrot, tomato):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, quinoa, chicken, pepper, thyme, carrot, tomato. 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).