Name: Creamy Sweet Potato with Ginger Soup
Yield: 6 to 7 cups
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 1/2 pounds peeled raw sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks; 1 large onion, cut into large dice; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 pinch sugar; 3 large garlic cloves, thickly sliced; 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger; 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 3 cups chicken broth, homemade or from a carton or can; 1 1/2 cups half-and-half (or whole milk); Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; Garnish: chopped honey-roasted peanuts

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Sweet potato + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together306 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, sweet potato, butter, sugar, garlic, clove, ginger):

Shallotfits better
Eggplantfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, sweet potato, butter, sugar, garlic, clove, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Creamy Sweet Potato with Ginger Soup