Why it works: Green beans and basil work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 38 recipes mention both. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Cook the base
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
Add leeks, carrots, and water.
Cover and cook until the leeks are very tender, about 15 minutes. Do not brown.
Add 6 cups of broth and bring to a boil.
Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost tender, about 10 minutes.
Add vegetables and herbs
Add beans, green beans, zucchini, peas, and asparagus.
Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix parsley, basil, green onions, and garlic. Stir into simmering soup.
Add additional broth to thin soup if necessary.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve
Serve with grated Parmesan if desired.
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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Green beans + basiltop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together38 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Beans + green beanstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together36 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Pepper + basiltop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,292 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Olive + basiltop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,868 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Carrot + basiltop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,112 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leeks
- Soften into sweet, tender body that forms the base of the soup.
- Pasta shapes
- Add starch and body, thickening the broth as it cooks.
- Cannellini beans
- Add creamy texture and substance, making the soup more filling.
- Vegetable broth
- Provides the liquid that cooks the vegetables and pasta into a soup.
The step that matters
Cook the leeks gently without browning. Covered, gentle cooking softens the leeks and draws out their sweetness. Browning would add bitter, toasted flavours and change the clean, green taste of the soup.
Flavor stand-ins for the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, pepper, olive, carrot, pasta, beans, green beans):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Leekthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, pepper, olive, carrot, pasta, beans, green beans. 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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