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Dried Pea or Bean Soup

A hearty soup made from dried peas or beans, stock water, onion, carrots, butter, parsley, salt, pepper, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Dried Pea or Bean Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the peas or beans overnight in cold water.

  2. Drain the peas or beans.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook the peas or beans in stock water until tender.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sliced carrots to the peas and cook until tender.

  3. Remove from heat and rub the mixture through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Pour over the sliced carrots and serve immediately with croutons.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dried peas or beans
Form the main body of the soup and thicken it when rubbed through a sieve.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Onion
Builds savory flavor as it softens during cooking.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color while adding body to the soup.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked peas or beans through a sieve breaks down their starch-rich cells, giving the soup a smooth, thick texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup grainy and thin.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, butter, parsley, pepper):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, butter, parsley, pepper. 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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