Skip to main content

Beef Caldo with Spinach

"This is a highly nutritious and wonderful Mexican soup, called a 'caldo.' It is too dense to be a soup, and is almost a stew, except the liquid hasn't been thickened. The flavors are deep and rich. I almost never use 'cubed beef' any more, unless it's truly necessary as I think these thin slices are far better. Try this caldo, and you'll see why!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and spinach work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 490 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep1 hr
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

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

  1. Heat a thin layer of vegetable oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the beef pieces in batches, about 8 minutes total, then transfer to a plate.

  2. Lower the heat to medium. Add the diced onion and cook about 4 minutes until softened, then stir in the minced garlic for 1 minute.

  3. Pour in the red wine and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Simmer about 2 minutes.

  4. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, beef broth and chopped oregano. Return the beef and any juices to the pot, add a splash of water if it looks too thick, and bring to a boil.

  5. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  6. Add the quartered potatoes and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and a thermometer inserted into the thickest beef piece reads at least 145°F (63°C).

  7. Stir in the torn spinach and cook about 3 minutes until wilted.

  8. Remove from the heat and let stand for 3 minutes before serving hot.

By allrecipes. 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. Beef + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Plum + red winetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Tomato + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, tomato, potato, spinach, red wine, garlic):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, tomato, potato, spinach, red wine, garlic. 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).