Name: Creamy Tomato and Cream Cheese Soup
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients: 2 (29 ounce) cans diced tomatoes; 2 stalks celery, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 red bell pepper, chopped; 2 tablespoons margarine; 1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped; 1 onion, finely diced; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon white sugar; 8 cups beef stock; 1/2 teaspoon dried basil; 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary; 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme; 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese; salt and pepper to taste; 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, garlic, pepper, mushroom, onion, flour):

Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, garlic, pepper, mushroom, onion, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream Cheese	1 oz (28g)	99
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Creamy Tomato and Cream Cheese Soup