Name: Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 3 whole Medium Red Bell Pepper; 2 whole Medium Yellow Bell Pepper; 5 Tablespoons Olive Oil – You May Use Any Flavorless Oil Of Choice; 2 leaves Bay Leaf; 1 whole Large White Onion, Peeled And Roughly Chopped; 4 cloves Garlic – Chopped; ½ sprigs Fresh Thyme Or Rosemary (optional); 2 teaspoons Salt – As Per Taste; ½ teaspoons Black Pepper Powder; 1 can (14 Oz. Size) Vegetable Broth, Or Any Preferred Broth Or Plain Water; 1 teaspoon White Vinegar – Optional (This Is To Give It A Tangy Taste); 1 Tablespoon Butter – Any Butter Is Fine; 1 Tablespoon Grated Parmesan Cheese, Optional For Garnish

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,948 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

Swap the thyme

The recipe marks thyme as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, olive, onion, clove, garlic, vinegar, butter):

Thymethe original
Parsleyfits about as well
Rosemaryfits less well
Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, onion, clove, garlic, vinegar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup