Why it works: Quinoa and green beans work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 4 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
2 servingsIngredients
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.
Bring the beef broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
Stir in the quinoa, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes until the quinoa is nearly tender.
Add the green beans and drained mushrooms and simmer uncovered for 3 to 4 minutes until the beans are tender-crisp.
Stir in the green onions and tarragon, then pour in the evaporated milk and warm over low heat for about 1 minute without letting it boil.
Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.
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.
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Quinoa + green beanstop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Beef + mushroomtop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,231 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tarragon + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,691 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Beef + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the green beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, quinoa, onion, mushroom, tarragon, evaporated milk, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Green beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, quinoa, onion, mushroom, tarragon, evaporated milk, 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).
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