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Okra Soup

A simple soup made with sliced okra, spring onions, water, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 715 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the okra and spring onions.

Cook

  1. In a pot, add water and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the sliced okra and spring onions.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Simmer until the okra is tender.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Okra + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Its mucilage thickens the broth and gives the soup a silky body.
Spring onions
Add a mild, fresh onion flavour that lightly sweetens as they cook.

The step that matters

Simmering until the okra is tender. Okra needs enough time in simmering liquid to soften fully; undercooked pods stay slimy-textured and fibrous, while longer gentle cooking mellows the mucilage into a smooth, cohesive broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, 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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