Surprising Food Pairings You Need to Try

Certain foods go together perfectly and become classic pairings that you wouldn’t want to mess with. From cheese and pickle to spaghetti and meatballs, some food items are simply meant to be.

While we’re not going to try and convince you that there is a more glorious couple than fish and chips, there are a few combinations that you might not have thought of before. In fact, sometimes it’s a case of opposites attracting, which can create the perfect pair.

They may not be to everyone’s taste, but you never know until you’ve tried these unlikely duos, so why not be brave and give some of these a whirl?

Spicy sriracha sauce has had a bit of a hipster revolution, which means you can find it on most supermarket shelves when you would previously have needed to go to a specialist shop. It’s been tried with numerous questionable pairings that have left us questioning what people were thinking – sriracha and chocolate cake anyone? – but some combinations just work.

This is the case with peanut butter, which works perfectly with sriracha. Before you scoff at us, the two form what is basically satay sauce, which is really delicious, so they work well if you like a bit of spice. Either mix them together to make a savoury sauce or eat them in a sandwich – you can thank us later.

Another food of the moment is avocado, which you’ve probably seen a lot on toast recently. While this is a great pairing, you can’t really beat avocado with chocolate. Avocados are super creamy so they form the perfect healthy base for chocolate treats, working to make everything from chocolate mousse, truffles, smoothies and cakes.

The finished result is that you mostly taste the chocolate, which isn’t really a bad thing as far as we’re concerned.

You can get ice cream that is made from olive oil, in fact, it’s a traditional dessert in Italy. However, you might not usually think about pouring olive oil in a bowl with your ice cream. We’re more used to pouring olive oil on a salad or topping ice cream with chocolate sauce, but maybe next time you should consider combining the two?

Pick a good quality extra virgin olive oil and pour it over vanilla or chocolate ice cream to enjoy the two flavours together. You might even want to add a sprinkling of sea salt, but don’t get ahead of yourself.

Initially, this pairing sounds beyond weird. Whoever thought of trying mushrooms and blueberries together in the first place? However, it’s actually a bit like teaming fruit with meat, as the blueberries provide a really good contrast that brings out of the flavour of the mushrooms.

Many mushrooms have quite a meaty taste, which is very rich so works well in things like risotto and sauces. Adding a handful of blueberries in with them cuts through this and adds bursts of sweetness that are strangely really pleasant. You won’t believe us until you try it.

We’re sure there are a lot of different combinations out there that we haven’t tried – and some we don’t want to! Let us know what weird and wonderful food pairings you enjoy and which fail completely.