Why it works: Yam and potato work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 117 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Dice 6 cups of yams and cut 2 cups into ¼" thick half circles.
Thaw 10 oz frozen peas under hot water.
Simmer the soup
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil with 2 tsp thyme leaves, 3 cups diced onions, and diced yams.
Lower heat to medium and cook covered about 30 minutes until potatoes begin to break apart and form a broth.
Add 2 cups thinly sliced celery, 2 cups chopped russet potatoes, and 1 cup ¼" round carrots; continue cooking 10 minutes.
Add half‑circle yams, 2 tsp dried basil, and 1 tsp dried tarragon.
Lower heat and simmer covered until carrots and yam pieces are tender, about 10–15 minutes.
Add peas and 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley; simmer 5 minutes.
Finish and season
Blend 1 cup nonfat sour cream and ½ cup evaporated skim milk together in a blender; add to soup along with 2 tsp spike, 2 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp dried chives.
Heat gently, stirring often, until soup is hot but not boiling.
Adjust seasonings to taste.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Yam + potatotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together117 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,768 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
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Basil + tarragontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together292 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
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Thyme + tarragontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together463 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yams
- Soften into the broth and add body and natural sweetness as the main vegetable.
- Russet potatoes
- Break down during simmering to thicken the broth and give it a smooth body.
- Nonfat sour cream
- Adds tang and a creamy texture that enriches the soup without added fat.
- Evaporated skim milk
- Adds creaminess and body to the soup, softening its texture.
- Frozen peas
- Add sweetness, color and a tender bite to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Heat gently, stirring often, until soup is hot but not boiling.. Dairy such as sour cream and milk can curdle or separate if it boils, so the soup should be heated slowly once it is added.
Flavor stand-ins for the yam
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, onion, celery, potato, carrot, basil, tarragon):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Yamthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, onion, celery, potato, carrot, basil, tarragon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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