Name: Carrot-Ginger Soup with Chile Butter and Roasted Peanuts
Yield: Makes 6 first-course servings
Ingredients: 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature; 2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions (white and green parts only); 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper; 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter; 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds; 1 1/4 cups chopped onion; 1 5-ounce white-skinned potato, peeled, chopped; 2 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger; 5 cups (or more) vegetable broth or chicken broth; 6 tablespoons unsalted roasted peanuts, finely chopped

Why it works: Carrot and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,377 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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.

Carrot + gingertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + peanuttop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together161 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 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 ginger

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

Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper, carrot, potato, chicken, peanut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Roasted Peanut	not in our table	0

Carrot-Ginger Soup with Chile Butter and Roasted Peanuts