Why it works: Corn and miso work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 10 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
- For Garnish
Directions
Make the soup base
Place the beans, water, onion, garlic and all the seasonings except for the corn and miso in a large pot and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 30 minutes, or until beans are extra soft, and flavors have mingled well.
Remove pot from heat, and strain the soup, reserving the liquid and setting aside one cup of the beans.
Puree the remaining liquid and bean mixture until smooth, then return all but 1 cup (approximately) of the soup to the pot.
Add miso and corn
Puree the one cup of soup with the Miso paste until completely smooth.
Add this back into the soup pot, along with the beans you set aside, and the frozen corn kernels.
Reheat gently on medium-low, and do not boil.
Serve
Serve hot garnished with a dollop each of tofu sour cream and salsa, sprinkled with fresh cilantro and/or green onions, and a handful of tortilla chips for dipping.
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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Corn + misotop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Beans + cumintop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,188 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Garlic + cumintop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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, once pureed, give it its thick, creamy texture.
- Miso
- Adds savory depth and saltiness, rounding out the soup's flavor.
- Corn kernels
- Add natural sweetness and a pop of texture to the finished soup.
- Onion
- Builds a sweet, aromatic base as it softens during simmering.
- Garlic
- Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as the soup simmers.
The step that matters
Puree the miso with only one cup of soup. Miso is added to a small portion so it blends smoothly into a fine paste rather than clumping. Adding it to the whole pot at once risks lumps, and boiling it can dull its flavor, which is why the soup is only reheated gently.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, corn, garlic, sauce, parsley, cumin, pepper):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, corn, garlic, sauce, parsley, cumin, pepper. 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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