Name: Black Bean Salad Recipe
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 8oz can of black beans (well rinsed and drained); 1 cup corn kernels (fresh, frozen or canned); 1/4 whole jalapeno finely chopped (or as much heat as you can handle); 1/2 cup red onion (finely diced); 1/2 cup red pepper (finely diced); 1 tsp honey; 1/2 tsp ground coriander; 1/2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp chili powder; 1 freshly squeezed lime; Freshly chopped cilantro to taste (if you don’t like cilantro use Italian parsley); Generous amount of Olive oil; Salt & pepper to taste.

Why it works: Coriander and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,866 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Coriander + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,866 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Beans + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,188 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Jalapeno + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together688 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Jalapeno + coriandertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,363 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, corn, jalapeno, pepper, honey, coriander, cumin):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Sweet potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, corn, jalapeno, pepper, honey, coriander, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Black Bean	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	114
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Coriander	not in our table	0

Black Bean Salad Recipe