Name: No Cream Creamy Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups finely chopped onions; 2 green onions, sliced thinly, tops included; ½ cup finely chopped celery; 1 green chili pepper, chopped; ½ cup canola or vegetable oil; 3 cans chicken broth (14½ oz cans) or 6 cups homemade chicken stock; 2 cups pumpkin purée or 1 can (16 oz) solid pack pumpkin; 1 bay leaf; 1½ teaspoons ground cumin; 1 cup undiluted, evaporated skim milk; salt and pepper to taste (canned chicken broth and canned pumpkin may contain added salt. Taste the finished soup before adding salt, as additional salt may not be needed); Parmesan cheese; fresh chopped parsley

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + cumintop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together439 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,498 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + cumintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,382 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin purée: Forms the body of the soup and gives it its thick, smooth texture.
Evaporated skim milk: Adds creaminess and body to the soup without making it greasy.
Chicken broth: Provides the liquid base that carries the flavour and lets the soup simmer.
Onions: Build savoury, sweet flavour when softened slowly in oil at the start.
Canola or vegetable oil: Carries fat-soluble flavours and helps soften the vegetables gently.

The step that matters

Add the evaporated milk over low heat and do not boil. Milk proteins can curdle or turn grainy and separate when boiled, so gentle heat keeps the soup smooth and creamy.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, pepper, chicken, cumin, milk, parmesan cheese):

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Avocadofits better
Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, pepper, chicken, cumin, milk, parmesan cheese. 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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Canola	1 tbsp (14g)	124
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0
Soup	not in our table	0

No Cream Creamy Pumpkin Soup