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Two Bean Vegetable Chili

"Hearty chunks of zucchini, onion, carrots, mushrooms and peppers simmer with red and black beans in a rich Italian sauce."

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Why it works: Kidney beans and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 364 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep25 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: pasta

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 pot over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes.

  3. Add the carrots, zucchini, mushrooms and red peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes.

  4. Stir in the ground chipotle chile pepper and crushed oregano and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.

  5. Add the rinsed and drained kidney beans and black beans, then pour in the pasta sauce and stir well.

  6. Bring to a gentle simmer, reduce the heat to low, and cook uncovered for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the chili thickens.

  7. Ladle into bowls and serve hot.

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. Kidney beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together364 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,441 recipes

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

  4. Olive + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Olive + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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, carrot, mushroom, pepper, kidney beans, beans, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, carrot, mushroom, pepper, kidney beans, beans, sauce. 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).