Name: Rice Cups with Guacamole and Salsa
Ingredients: 3 cups hot cooked rice; 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese; 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper; 1 teaspoon salt, divided; Vegetable cooking spray; 2 ripe avocadoes; 2 tablespoons lime juice; 1/4 cup finely minced cilantro; 1/4 cup finely minced onion; 1/4 cup prepared salsa; 1/4 cup sour cream; cilantro leaves

Why it works: Avocado and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,117 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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.

Avocado + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,117 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cumin + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,216 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cheddar cheese + parmesan cheesetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together592 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cumin + avocadotop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together415 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice: Forms the base of each cup, holding its shape once pressed and baked.
Cheddar cheese: Melts and binds the rice together while adding savoury richness.
Parmesan cheese: Browns during baking and adds a salty, savoury flavour to the cup.
Avocadoes: Provide the creamy, fatty body of the guacamole filling.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the avocado and helps keep it from browning.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and tang that softens the guacamole's texture.

The step that matters

Press the rice mixture firmly and evenly into the tins. Firm, even packing removes air gaps so the cups hold their shape when baked and released. Loose or uneven pressing can cause crumbling or cups that break when removed from the pans.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, cumin, pepper, avocado, lime):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, cumin, pepper, avocado, lime. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Cheddar Cheese	1 oz (28g)	113
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Rice Cups with Guacamole and Salsa