Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,030 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
The recipe
4 servingsIngredients
Contains: wheat (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.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the minced garlic and chopped jalapeno pepper and cook for 1 minute more.
Add the drained black-eyed peas and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook, mashing some of the peas with a spoon, until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 6 minutes.
Stir in the lime juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat.
Warm the flour tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat, about 30 seconds per side, or wrap them in foil and warm in a 350°F (177°C) oven for 5 minutes.
Spoon the black-eyed pea mixture onto the warm tortillas and serve.
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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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,491 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Jalapeno + flourtop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together488 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Jalapeno + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together1,035 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Black-eyed pea + jalapenotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together36 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 (olive, black-eyed pea, jalapeno, pepper, garlic, lime, flour):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, black-eyed pea, jalapeno, pepper, garlic, lime, flour. 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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