Why it works: Olive and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the soup base
In a medium stockpot, heat olive oil until sizzling.
Add the onion, garlic and celery, cooking until translucent.
Add tomatoes, chicken stock, garbanzo beans, lentils, black pepper, cinnamon, cumin and turmeric to the stockpot.
Cook over low heat for 40 minutes, or until the garbanzo beans and lentils become tender.
Add the vermicelli to the soup.
Thicken and finish
Mix flour with lemon juice and form into a paste. Add flour paste gradually to the soup until the soup thickens.
Simmer for an additional 3 minutes.
Stir in cilantro and Italian parsley.
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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Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,164 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Tomato + beanstop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,711 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together14,075 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Celery + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lentils
- Break down slightly as they cook, adding body and thickening the soup.
- Garbanzo beans
- Hold their shape while softening, adding bulk and a firm, creamy bite.
- Crushed tomatoes
- Provide acidity and liquid that carries the spices through the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the broth when cooked into a paste with lemon juice and stirred in.
- Vermicelli
- Adds starch that softens in the broth and gives the soup a noodle texture.
- Onion
- Sweetens and builds savory depth as it cooks until translucent.
The step that matters
Adding the flour paste. Flour must be fully dispersed in the paste before it goes in, and added gradually while stirring; otherwise it clumps and stays raw-tasting. Starch thickens only as the soup heats, so the simmer afterward matters.
Flavor stand-ins for the lentils
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, garlic, celery, tomato, chicken, beans):
- Chickpeabetter flavor fit
- Lima beansbetter flavor fit
- Peanutbetter flavor fit
- Lentilsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, garlic, celery, tomato, chicken, 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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