Name: Oriental Spicy and Sour Soup
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons vegetable oil; 2 red bell peppers, julienned; 1 bunch green onions, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces; 2 cups chicken broth; 2 cups vegetable stock; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar; 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons cornstarch; 3 tablespoons water; 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 1/2 pound snow peas; 1 pound firm tofu, cubed; 1 (8 ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

Why it works: Onion and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,192 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. 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.

Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Chicken + sesametop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together939 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together575 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Pepper + oniontop 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

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, chicken, sauce, red wine, vinegar, sesame):

Beansfits better
Peanutfits better
Chestnutfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, chicken, sauce, red wine, vinegar, sesame. 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
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Tofu	100g firm	76
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Red Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Chestnut	not in our table	0

Oriental Spicy and Sour Soup