Name: Tomato and Crab Soup
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil; 5 scallions, thinly sliced; 1 1/2 stalks lemongrass, peeled, trimmed, thinly sliced; 1 Fresno or Thai chile, seeded, minced; 2 1/2 pounds beefsteak tomatoes, chopped (about 3 cups); 2 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock; 1/2 cup coconut milk; 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice; 1 tablespoon fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam); 1 tablespoon (or more) fresh lime juice; Kosher salt; 1/2 pound fresh lump crabmeat; 3/4 cup pea tendrils or shoots, trimmed; 6 snow peas, trimmed, thinly sliced on diagonal; Fish sauce is available at better supermarkets and at Asian markets. Pea tendrils are available at natural foods stores and Asian markets

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Coconut + limetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together934 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Orange + limetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together937 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Olive + coconuttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,672 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Tomato + limetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,878 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 orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, tomato, chicken, coconut, milk, fish sauce, lime):

Mangofits better
Avocadofits better
Cherryfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, tomato, chicken, coconut, milk, fish sauce, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Orange Juice	1 medium (131g)	62
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Lemongrass	1 tbsp (6g)	5
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Tomato and Crab Soup