Skip to main content
Main

Old-fashioned Pinto Bean Soup

A soup of pinto beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, green chiles, and spices.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beans and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,188 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Pinto Bean Soup

Time10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Coat a saucepan with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat until hot.

  2. Add bell peppers and sauté 2 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. Remove from heat, add 1 can pinto beans and mash.

  2. Add remaining beans and the tomatoes, green chiles, water, cumin, cayenne, and basil; stir well.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve

  1. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with green onions.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

267Calories
13 gProtein
2 gFat
51 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pinto Bean1/2 cup (86g) canned122
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Green Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Red Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Waternot in our table0

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. Beans + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,188 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,979 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,272 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 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

Pinto beans
Mashed beans thicken the soup and give it a creamy body while whole beans keep texture.
Diced tomatoes
Tomatoes add moisture and acidity that brighten the flavor of the soup.
Green bell pepper
Sautéed peppers add sweetness and a fresh, vegetal aroma to the base.
Ground cumin
Cumin adds warm, earthy aroma that defines the soup's flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, beans, tomato, cumin, basil):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, beans, tomato, cumin, basil. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes