Name: White Bean and Vegetable Soup
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons olive oil; 2 cups chopped onion; 2 cups chopped celery; 2 cloves garlic; 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 1 teaspoon dried rosemary crumbled; 2 cups sliced carrots; 8 small red potatoes chopped; 1 pound dried white beans soaked overnight in enough cold water and drained; 5 cups vegetable stock; 1 cup white wine; ½ cup chopped parsley; ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Why it works: Thyme and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. 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.

Thyme + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,340 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Celery + carrottop 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).
Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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

White beans: Provide the bulk of the soup and, once puréed, a thick, creamy body.
Red potatoes: Break down slightly during simmering to add body and starch to the broth.
Onion: Builds a sweet, savoury aromatic base as it softens in the oil.
Vegetable stock: Forms the liquid base that the beans and vegetables cook in.
White wine: Adds acidity and a layer of aroma that brightens the finished soup.
Parmesan cheese: Adds salty, savoury flavour and umami when sprinkled over the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the beans until fully tender. Dried beans must cook long enough for their starches to soften fully; undercooked beans stay firm and grainy, and salt added too early can slow softening, so season only after the beans are tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, celery, clove, garlic, thyme, rosemary, carrot):

Parsnipfits better
Eggplantfits better
Tomatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, celery, clove, garlic, thyme, rosemary, carrot. 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
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Bean	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

White Bean and Vegetable Soup