Why it works: Bulgur and chickpea share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 19 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
2-4Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
- toppings
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Dice the onion. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, add the onion, and cook for 5 minutes until softened.
Stir in the smoked paprika and salt and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
Add the bulgur, stewed tomatoes, veggie broth and chickpeas, and stir well. Bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bulgur is tender.
Stir in the Frank's red hot (or favorite substitute) and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes to warm through and thicken slightly.
Ladle the chili into bowls and top with blue cheese and croutons. Serve hot.
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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Bulgur + chickpeatop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together19 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,164 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + chickpeatop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together537 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Olive + chickpeatop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together942 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).
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Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together20,622 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, bulgur, tomato, chickpea, blue cheese):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Lettucebetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, bulgur, tomato, chickpea, blue cheese. 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).
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