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Black Beans with Saffron Rice

A dish of black beans simmered with onions, garlic, bay leaves, and saffron rice served with a tomato and onion garnish.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 16 ingredients
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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 ↓

Black Beans with Saffron Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beans

  1. Rinse and sort the beans.

  2. Put the beans into a large, heavy pot with lid.

  3. Cover the pot with 4 cups of water.

  4. Bring the water to a boil.

  5. Cover the pot.

  6. Remove the pot from heat.

  7. Add the halved onions, bay leaves, and garlic cloves to the beans.

  8. Place the pot over low heat and cook, covered, for about 1½ to 2 hours.

  9. Remove the pot from heat and discard the onions, bay leaves, and garlic cloves.

  10. Keep the beans warm.

Make the garnish

  1. Prepare the garnish about 1 hour before serving.

  2. Place the tomatoes and chopped onions into a serving bowl.

  3. Add the olive oil, wine vinegar, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, fresh basil or parsley, and black pepper to taste.

  4. Toss the garnish to blend.

Cook the saffron rice

  1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a heavy saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.

  2. Add the rice and saffron threads.

  3. Stir well, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the water.

Serve

  1. To serve, place the rice, black beans, and the garnish into separate bowls.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

563Calories
15 gProtein
16 gFat
86 gCarbs

Counts 14 of 16 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Waternot in our table0
Saffronnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Rice + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Black beans
Form the main body of the dish and, once simmered, become tender and creamy.
Rice
Absorbs the cooking water and saffron, forming the fluffy starchy base of the dish.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness to the garnish and carries the flavour of the spices.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and fresh acidity that brightens the garnish.
Wine vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the oil and beans.
Saffron
Gives the rice its golden colour and a distinctive floral aroma.

The step that matters

Simmer the beans gently with the lid on. Beans cooked at a hard boil can split and break apart, while slow covered simmering keeps them intact and evenly tender. Dried beans must be fully softened before they are seasoned or served.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, onion, garlic, rice, saffron, tomato, olive):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, onion, garlic, rice, saffron, tomato, olive. 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.

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