Skip to main content

Squash, Lentil & Bean One-pot with Fig Raita

Hit your whole 5-a-day with this curried veggie spice-pot, packed with pulses and squash, served with cooling yogurt dip

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: White wine and fig share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep30 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

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

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large lidded pot over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until soft.

  2. Stir in the ground cumin and chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.

  3. Add the diced butternut squash and cook for 3 minutes, stirring so it is coated in the spices.

  4. Add the chopped tomatoes and dried red lentils, pour in enough water to cover everything generously, and bring to a boil.

  5. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes, stirring now and then and adding a splash of water if it looks dry, until the squash and lentils are tender.

  6. Stir in the agave syrup or brown sugar, the wine vinegar and the drained and rinsed kidney beans. Simmer uncovered for 3 minutes until heated through.

  7. While the stew simmers, mix the finely chopped figs into the fat-free natural yogurt in a bowl.

  8. Stir half the chopped parsley into the fig yogurt. Stir the remaining parsley into the stew.

  9. Ladle the squash, lentil and bean one-pot into bowls and spoon the fig raita on top to serve.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. White wine + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Butternut squash + agavetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

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

  4. Cumin + lentilstop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together308 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butternut squash + lentilstop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 (butternut squash, olive, cumin, tomato, lentils, agave, white wine):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Kalebetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut squash, olive, cumin, tomato, lentils, agave, white wine. 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).