Name: Kosher Vegetarian Cholent
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups dried large lima beans; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 medium onions, thinly sliced; 3 stalks celery, thinly sliced; 2 large potatoes or 4 small potatoes, peeled and quartered; 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 bay leaf, crushed; 1 1/2-2tablespoons vegetarian chicken soup mixes or 5 vegetable bouillon cube; 1 tablespoon paprika; 4 cups hot water; salt; fresh ground pepper

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Garlic + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,517 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dried large lima beans: Provide the bulk and creamy, starchy body of the stew as they cook slowly.
Potatoes: Add starch that softens during the long cooking and helps thicken the stew.
Onions: Build sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the oil.
Vegetable oil: Carries the flavor of the aromatics and helps them soften evenly.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and body to the stew during the long cook.

The step that matters

Cook 20 hours. Dried lima beans need a long, gentle cook to become fully tender and creamy. Cooking too briefly leaves them firm or starchy, and the flavors do not meld. Check that the beans are soft before serving.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, onion, celery, potato, carrot, chicken):

Chickpeafits better
Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, onion, celery, potato, carrot, chicken. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Lima Bean	1/2 cup (85g) cooked	108
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Soup	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

Kosher Vegetarian Cholent