Name: Garden Center Café Turkey Tostadas with Prize-winning Guacamole
Ingredients: 6 12-inch flour tortillas; 4 Cups turkey leftovers; 4 Cups refried beans; 1 head iceberg lettuce; 1 small can sliced black olives; hot sauce or salsa to taste; 3 Cups shredded Jack cheese, Cheddar or Pepper Jack cheese; 2 diced tomatoes; 1 diced onion; 1 bunch cilantro tops; sour cream; Guacamole (recipe follows); Award-winning Guacamole; 3 ripe, large California Hass avocados, peeled and seeded; 2 vine-ripe Roma tomatoes, diced small; 1 medium white onion minced real small (about 1/2 cup); juice from 1 large lime or 1/2 lemon; garlic salt; ½ Cup chopped cilantro

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together500 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,470 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Lettuce + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour tortillas: Fry crisp to form the edible bowl that holds the filling.
Refried beans: Add moisture and body to the base and help anchor the shell to the plate.
Turkey leftovers: Provide the main protein, simmered in salsa until moist and flavorful.
Avocados: Provide creamy richness and fat that give the guacamole its smooth texture.
Jack, cheddar or pepper jack cheese: Melts and adds fat, saltiness and savory flavor to the filling.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the guacamole and slows browning of the avocado.

The step that matters

Frying the tortilla bowl. Oil must be hot enough that the tortilla crisps quickly; if it is too cool the shell absorbs oil and turns greasy and soft instead of rigid.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, turkey, beans, olive, sauce, cheese, tomato):

Capsicumfits better
Welsh onionfits about as well
Lettucethe original
Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, turkey, beans, olive, sauce, cheese, tomato. 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
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Avocado	1 medium (150g)	240
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Tortilla	1 medium flour (45g)	140
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Cheddar Cheese	1 oz (28g)	113
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Iceberg Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Bean	not in our table	0

Garden Center Café Turkey Tostadas with Prize-winning Guacamole