Name: Beef Fajitas with a Cilantro Lime Marinade
Ingredients: 2 limes, juiced; 1 tablespoons olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced; 3 tablespoon fresh cilantro, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon cumin; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 1/4 pounds flank steak, trimmed of fat; 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced; 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced; 1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced; 1 red onion, thinly sliced; 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced; 12 flour tortillas, warm

Why it works: Lime and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,216 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Lime + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,216 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Jalapeno + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together688 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lime + jalapenotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lime, olive, garlic, clove, jalapeno, cumin, pepper):

Kalefits better
Spinachfits better
Eggplantfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lime, olive, garlic, clove, jalapeno, cumin, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Tortilla	1 medium flour (45g)	140
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Beef Fajitas with a Cilantro Lime Marinade