Why it works: Beans and epazote work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 5 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Soak the black beans for 2 hours and drain.
Make the soup
In a deep, heavy-based pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
Add the onions and cook about 5 minutes until translucent.
Add the beans, garlic, and 6 cups cold water.
Bring to a boil, skimming any foam that rises to the surface.
Reduce to a simmer.
After about an hour, or when the beans are soft, add the tomato, epazote, chipotle chile, cumin, coriander, and salt.
Continue cooking until the beans start to break down and the broth begins to thicken.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.
Thicken and serve
If serving immediately, thicken by puréeing a cup or two of the beans in a blender or food processor and then recombining them with the rest of the soup.
The soup will thicken on its own if refrigerated overnight.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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.
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Beans + epazotetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,866 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,164 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Beans + tomatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,711 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Black beans
- Form the body of the soup and, as they break down, thicken the broth.
- Onions
- Build a sweet, savory base as they soften during the first cooking.
- Garlic
- Adds pungent aroma that mellows and deepens during simmering.
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Carries flavor from the aromatics and adds richness to the soup.
- Tomato
- Adds acidity and body, balancing the earthy beans.
- Chipotle chiles
- Provide smoky heat that flavors the whole pot.
The step that matters
Bringing to a boil and skimming. Foam rising from beans carries impurities and starch; skimming keeps the broth clean and clear. Salt is added only after the beans are soft, because adding it too early can slow softening of the skins.
Flavor stand-ins for the epazote
The recipe marks epazote as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, olive, onion, garlic, tomato, cumin, coriander):
- Oreganobetter flavor fit
- Basilbetter flavor fit
- Turmericbetter flavor fit
- Epazotethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, olive, onion, garlic, tomato, cumin, coriander. 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).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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