Skip to main content

Christmas Lima Bean Stew

The soup I've cooked most this year. There is so much going on here despite a modest list of ingredients. Celery, crushed caraway, and garlic are cooked together alongside big hearty beans and chopped tomatoes in what becomes an olive-oil dappled broth. You serve each bowl with chopped oily, black olives and fresh lemon wedges. This is a version made with Christmas Lima beans, but you can substitute cannellini or giant corona beans.

By 101cookbooks · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Christmas Lima Bean Stew

Why it works: Lima beans and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 156 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Christmas Lima Bean Stew

Prep25 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

349Calories
11 gProtein
15 gFat
48 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 13 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Lima Bean1/2 cup (85g) cooked108
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Plum1 medium (66g)30
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Beannot in our table0
Caraway Seednot in our table0
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.

By 101cookbooks. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Lima beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Celery + carawaytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lima beans, beans, olive, celery, onion, garlic, clove):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lima beans, beans, olive, celery, onion, garlic, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.