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Beef, Black Bean, and Corn Nachos

Tortilla chips topped with a spiced beef, black bean, and corn mixture, cheese, and sour cream.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 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 ↓

Beef, Black Bean, and Corn Nachos

serves 8

Ingredients

Directions

Make the beef filling

  1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.

  2. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is very tender, about 8 minutes.

  3. Add beef and sauté until brown, breaking up with back of fork, about 5 minutes.

  4. Add chili powder, oregano, and sugar; stir 30 seconds.

  5. Add beans, corn, and tomato sauce.

  6. Cover; simmer until beef is cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

  7. Mix in cilantro and lemon juice.

  8. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Line 8 serving bowls with tortilla chips.

  2. Spoon beef mixture over chips.

  3. Top with cheese and sour cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1058Calories
68 gProtein
44 gFat
102 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Tortilla Chip1 medium flour (45g)140
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Cheddar Cheese1 oz (28g)113
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Cilantro1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)1

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. Garlic + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,756 recipes

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

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Clove + oreganotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together556 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Olive + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef
Provides the savory meaty base that the spices and beans are cooked into.
Black beans
Add body and hearty texture to the filling.
Onion
Softens and turns sweet as it cooks, building the base flavor.
Chili powder
Supplies the main spiced, earthy flavor of the filling.
Corn
Adds sweetness and a tender pop of texture.
Tortilla chips
Form the base layer that holds the warm filling.

The step that matters

Browning the beef. Letting the beef sit undisturbed until deeply browned creates flavorful Maillard reactions; crowding the pan or stirring too early steams the meat and leaves it grey and bland.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, garlic, beef, oregano, sugar, beans):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, garlic, beef, oregano, sugar, beans. 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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