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Lentil Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with lentils, carrots, parsnip, turnip, onion, salt, pepper, and optional butter or sherry wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lentil Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the lentils overnight.

  2. Chop the carrot, parsnip, turnip, and onion into small pieces.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine the soaked lentils and chopped vegetables.

  2. Cook for three hours over low heat.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and butter or sherry wine as desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  3. Lentils + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lentils + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the main body and protein-rich bulk of the soup as they soften during long cooking.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color as its sugars develop during slow cooking.
Parsnip
Adds natural sweetness and a thicker texture as it breaks down during cooking.
Turnip
Adds mild earthy flavor and body as it softens in the simmering broth.
Onion
Builds savory depth and aroma as it softens and releases its sugars.

The step that matters

Cooking for three hours over low heat. Low, steady heat lets lentils and root vegetables soften fully without scorching on the bottom of the pot. Too high a heat can burn the base or leave the lentils unevenly cooked. Check the liquid level so the soup does not dry out during the long simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, carrot, parsnip, turnip, pepper, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, carrot, parsnip, turnip, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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