Name: Rice Soup with Red Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 2 ounces pancetta minced; 2 medium white onions finely chopped; 1 small red cabbage cut in half and julienned; 2 large peeled potatoes diced small; 2 tablespoons tomato paste dissolved in 2 cups dry white wine; 2 quarts boiling hot chicken broth; 1½ cups long grain rice; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,994 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pancetta: Renders fat that carries flavor through the onions and cabbage.
Red cabbage: Provides the main body and slight sweetness as it softens in the broth.
Long grain rice: Absorbs liquid and thickens the soup as it cooks.
Tomato paste: Adds acidity and depth of savory flavor to the broth.
Potatoes: Break down slightly during simmering, adding body to the soup.

The step that matters

Stir in rice and cook covered for fifteen minutes. Rice keeps absorbing liquid and swelling while it sits, so it can turn mushy if it cooks too long. Keeping the lid on holds steam in so the rice cooks evenly in the simmering broth.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, potato, tomato, white wine, chicken, rice):

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Chivefits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, potato, tomato, white wine, chicken, rice. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Rice Soup with Red Cabbage