Name: Plantain Soup with Celery Rib
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 carrot, finely chopped; 1 celery rib, finely chopped; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 4-4 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth; 2 green plantains, peeled, quartered lengthwise & thinly sliced; 1 bunch cilantro, stemmed and finely chopped; 1/2-1 teaspoon cumin; 1 bay leaf; salt & pepper

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Carrot + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Green plantains: Starch that breaks down during simmering, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Onion: Sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the oil.
Chicken stock or broth: Liquid base that carries the flavor and cooks the plantains until tender.
Garlic: Aroma that mellows and deepens during the initial cooking.
Extra virgin olive oil: Fat that carries aroma from the aromatics and softens the vegetables.

The step that matters

Simmer until the plantains are very tender. Plantain starch must fully soften before blending; undercooked pieces leave the puree grainy and thin, and the long gentle simmer lets the starch break down evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, chicken, cumin):

Oreganofits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, chicken, cumin. 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
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Plantain	not in our table	0

Plantain Soup with Celery Rib