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Greek Green Beans

"A nice mix of green beans, onion, and tomatoes simmered until soft and delicious! Just like Ya Ya used to make!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Green beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 113 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep20 min
Cook55 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 large heavy pot over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onions and minced garlic and cook, stirring often, for about 8 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent.

  3. Add the rinsed, trimmed green beans, diced tomatoes, sugar and salt, and stir to combine.

  4. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

  5. If the pot looks dry before the beans are tender, add a splash of water and keep simmering.

  6. Uncover and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until the beans are very tender and the sauce has thickened.

  7. Taste and adjust the salt, then serve warm or at room temperature.

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. Green beans + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 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 onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, green beans, tomato, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, green beans, tomato, sugar. 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).