Name: Fish and Noodle Soup
Ingredients: 200 g-Dried rice vermicelli; 1 tablespoon-Cooking oil; 2.5cm piece-Fresh ginger, grated; 3 small-Red chilies, seeded and finely chopped; 4-Spring onions, chopped; 3 1/2 cups-Coconut milk; 2 tablespoons-Fish sauce; 2 tablespoons-Tomato paste; 500 g-Firm white fish fillets, cubed; 2-Ham steaks, diced; 150g-Snake beans, chopped; 180g-Bean sprouts, trimmed; 1 cup-Fresh mint; 1/2 cup-Unsalted roasted peanuts

Why it works: Rice and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,063 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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.

Rice + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,063 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ginger + coconuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,168 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 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

What each ingredient does

Coconut milk: Adds richness and body to the broth, softening the spice and making it creamy.
Firm white fish fillets: Provides the main protein, turning tender as it simmers in the broth.
Ham steaks: Adds savoury, salty flavour that enriches the soup.
Tomato paste: Adds concentrated savoury depth and a little acidity to the broth.
Dried rice vermicelli: Forms the noodle base that soaks up the soup and gives the bowl its body.

The step that matters

Simmering the fish. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry and rubbery if overcooked, so simmer gently only until it is just tender and flakes easily.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

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

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Sauce	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0
Roasted Peanut	not in our table	0

Fish and Noodle Soup