Name: Santa Fe Black Bean Soup
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 medium yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice; 1 stalk celery, cut into 1/4-inch dice; 1/4 cup precooked bacon bits (not imitation); 1 tablespoon minced garlic; 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper; 1 1/2 tablespoons chicken base; 1 tablespoon chili powder; 5 (15-ounce) cans black beans; 3/4 cup bottled barbecue sauce

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Garlic + beanstop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,935 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Celery + beanstop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,159 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Black beans: Provide the bulk of the soup and thicken it as they break down during simmering.
Bacon bits: Add savory, smoky fat and flavor to the sauté base.
Barbecue sauce: Adds sweetness, acidity and caramelized smoky flavor to the broth.
Chicken base: Adds concentrated savory, meaty flavor to the soup.
Yellow onion: Builds aromatic sweetness and body as it softens in the oil.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for one hour. Bringing the soup to a boil and then reducing to a gentle simmer prevents scorching on the pot bottom, since beans and sugary barbecue sauce burn easily. Stirring and adding water as needed keeps the consistency even as the liquid reduces.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, pepper, chicken, beans, sauce):

Cuminfits better
Thymefits about as well
Capersfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, pepper, chicken, beans, sauce. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Black Bean	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	114
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Sauce	not in our table	0

Santa Fe Black Bean Soup