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Pumpkin, Butter Bean, and Spinach Curry

"Mild, creamy vegetarian curry that the whole family will love! And so EASY to make!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pumpkin and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 200 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

The recipe

4 Servings
Prep10 min
Cook35 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. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot or deep saucepan over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook, stirring often, until softened and lightly golden, about 6 minutes.

  2. Stir in the curry paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant.

  3. Pour in the coconut milk and water, stirring to loosen any paste from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer.

  4. Add the pumpkin squares, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, until the pumpkin is just tender when pierced with a knife.

  5. Drain the butter beans and add them to the pot along with the thawed, drained spinach. Stir gently and simmer uncovered for about 8 minutes, until the beans are hot and the sauce has thickened slightly.

  6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  7. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the chopped cilantro just before serving.

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. Pumpkin + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together200 recipes

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

  2. Beans + lima beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together156 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Beans + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together365 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, 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 (coconut, milk, pumpkin, butter, beans, lima beans, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, milk, pumpkin, butter, beans, lima beans, 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).