Name: Spicy Sweet Potato and Green Rice Burrito Bowls
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1½ cups long grain brown rice; 3¼ cups vegetable broth; 1½ cup baby spinach, lightly packed; ½ cup cilantro (mostly leaves, stems are ok), lightly packed; 1 jalapeño or serrano pepper, seeded, membranes removed and roughly chopped; 1 medium shallot, peeled and roughly chopped; 1 garlic clove, peeled, roughly chopped; ¼ teaspoon salt, more to taste; 2 pounds sweet potatoes (3 to 4 medium sweet potatoes), peeled and sliced into 1-inch chunks; 2 tablespoons olive oil; ½ teaspoon smoked paprika; ¼ teaspoon sea salt; 2 cans (14 ounces each) black beans or 3 cups cooked black beans, with their cooking liquid; 2 teaspoons ground cumin; ½ teaspoon chili powder; 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar or lime juice; Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; ¼ cup pepitas (green pumpkin seeds); ¼ teaspoon olive oil; 1 avocado, pitted and sliced; Jarred mild salsa verde; Chopped cilantro; Crumbled feta (optional, not vegan)

Why it works: Spinach and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,435 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. 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.

Spinach + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,435 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Spinach + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together198 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Spinach + sweet potatotop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together126 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Shallot + sweet potatotop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, rice, spinach, pepper, shallot, garlic, sweet potato):

Capersfits better
Cuminfits better
Turmericfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, rice, spinach, pepper, shallot, garlic, sweet potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Avocado	1 medium (150g)	240
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Black Bean	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	114
Feta Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pepita	not in our table	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Spicy Sweet Potato and Green Rice Burrito Bowls