Name: Baked Chickpeas with Pita Chips and Yogurt
Ingredients: 1 pound dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or 4 15-ounce cans cooked chickpeas; 1/4 cup olive oil; 2 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced; 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced; 2 teaspoons ground cumin; 2 teaspoons ground coriander; 1 teaspoon paprika or; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, spoonful of harissa or a couple shakes of your favorite hot sauce (all adjusted to your heat preference); Few gratings fresh lemon zest; 2 teaspoons coarse sea or kosher salt (what I used for lightly salted broth, use more for unsalted, less for salted or canned beans); 4 cups vegetable broth (for dried but soaked chickpeas), 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (for cooked chickpeas); 1 cup or more of water (will likely only need if beans weren’t pre-soaked); (all instructions below); Fresh pitas for pita chips; Big handful of parsley (or a mix of parsley, cilantro and mint would be good too); 1/4 cup pine nuts; Tomato-cucumber “relish” salad; Lemon-tahini yogurt or plain yogurt; Additional paprika or sumac for sprinkling

Why it works: Cumin and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,866 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.

Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,866 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together451 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the harissa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chickpea, olive, onion, clove, garlic, cumin, coriander):

Turmericfits better
Oreganofits better
Cardamomfits better
Harissathe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pine Nut	1 oz (28g)	191
Chickpea	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	134
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Bean	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0
Harissa	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0
Relish	not in our table	0
Salad	not in our table	0
Sumac	not in our table	0

Baked Chickpeas with Pita Chips and Yogurt