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Southwestern Stew on Soft Polenta

A hearty southwestern vegetable stew served over soft polenta.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,866 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or Dutch oven.

  2. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 8 minutes.

  3. Stir in garlic, flour, cumin, chili powder, and coriander and cook, stirring often, 1 minute.

  4. Stir in broth, squash, potato, corn, bay leaf, and salt.

  5. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.

  6. Reduce heat to low, cover partially, and simmer 15 minutes.

  7. Stir in tomato paste, basil, cinnamon, and pepper; cover partially and simmer gently until flavors have blended, about 10 minutes.

  8. Remove from heat.

Serve

  1. About 35 minutes before you plan to eat, make soft polenta.

  2. When it is almost done, rewarm stew over low heat.

  3. Spoon portions of polenta into large, shallow soup bowls, making a wide depression in the center.

  4. Spoon some stew into each depression, garnish with chopped bell pepper, and serve right away.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

  1. Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + basiltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,979 recipes

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

  3. Coriander + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,966 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Cumin + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Cumin + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 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

All-purpose flour
Thickens the broth into a stew body as it cooks with the onion and garlic.
Winter squash
Adds sweetness and a tender, body-giving texture as it softens in the broth.
Potato
Breaks down slightly as it cooks, adding starch that thickens and rounds the stew.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated savory depth and a little acidity to the stew.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the flavor base of the stew.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and pops of texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Cooking the spices and flour for 1 minute. Briefly frying ground spices and flour in oil with the aromatics wakes up their fat-soluble aroma compounds and cooks the raw starch taste out of the flour, so the stew tastes rounded rather than dusty.

Flavor stand-ins for the winter squash

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cumin, coriander, potato, corn, tomato, basil, cinnamon):

  1. Limebetter flavor fit
  2. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  3. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  4. Winter squashthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cumin, coriander, potato, corn, tomato, basil, cinnamon. 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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