Name: Fresh Tomato Zucchini Soup
Ingredients: 2½ tbsp olive oil; 1 medium zucchini, cubed; 1 clove garlic, minced; 8 large tomatoes, cored; 1 small sweet onion, chopped; 1 tbsp chopped fresh red chile pepper; 1 (14 ounce) can vegetable broth; 1 tbsp dried tarragon; 2 tsp dried dill weed; 1 tsp salt; ¼ tsp ground black pepper

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tarragon + dilltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together111 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the main body, acidity, and sweetness of the soup once pureed.
Zucchini: Adds soft texture and mild body, and light browning gives a little more flavour.
Olive oil: Carries heat for browning the zucchini and adds fat for a richer mouthfeel.
Vegetable broth: Supplies the liquid base that carries the pureed tomato and simmered vegetables.
Sweet onion: Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it blends into the soup base.

The step that matters

Cook and stir the zucchini and garlic until lightly browned. Browning develops savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Stirring keeps the pieces from scorching in the hot oil, which would turn them bitter.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, tomato, onion, pepper, tarragon, dill):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Basilfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, tomato, onion, pepper, tarragon, dill. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Tarragon	1 tsp dried (0.5g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Fresh Tomato Zucchini Soup