Why it works: Coriander and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,536 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 8Ingredients
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.
Drain the soaked black beans, put them in a saucepan and cover with fresh water by about 5cm (2 inches).
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 40 minutes until the beans are tender, topping up with a splash of water if needed.
Drain the beans well and leave them to cool for about 5 minutes.
Put the cooled beans in a large bowl with the drained sweetcorn, sliced spring onions and chopped coriander leaves and stalks, including the leftover stalks.
Add the juice of the 2 limes and the olive oil, then stir everything together until well combined.
Serve at room temperature or chill until needed.
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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Coriander + limetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,536 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Beans + olivetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,080 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Coriander + olivetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,708 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Beans + coriandertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,261 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Cheese + olivetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,530 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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 (beans, sweetcorn, coriander, cheese, lime, olive):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, sweetcorn, coriander, cheese, lime, olive. 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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