Skip to main content
Main

Soy-Lentil-Vegetable Stew

A hearty stew of soy chunks, lentils, broccoli, and peanuts simmered in olive oil and spices.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,030 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

The recipe

1 (large)
Time5–8 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, peanut, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Start the base

  1. Heat a pot large enough to safely contain all the ingredients over medium heat.

  2. Add the oil, then the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for a couple minutes until translucent.

Add and season

  1. Stir in the soy chunks, lentils, broccoli, and peanuts.

  2. Season to taste with pepper, turmeric, chile flakes, caraway, and ginger—you can be generous. Mix well.

Simmer

  1. Add enough boiling water to cover all the ingredients—it should be about ½ liter.

  2. Simmer the mixture until the lentils are soft (usually 5–8 minutes).

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Lentils + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Garlic + broccolitop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Pepper + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,476 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

Red lentils
Break down as they cook, thickening the stew and giving it body.
Soy chunks
Provide chewy, meaty texture and protein-rich bulk.
Broccoli
Adds bulk, green vegetable texture, and mild sweetness as it softens.
Red onion
Sweetens and builds the savoury base as it turns translucent.
Nutritional yeast flakes
Adds savoury, umami depth to the stew.
Peanuts
Add fat and a nutty richness to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the lentils are soft. Lentils need enough time in simmering liquid to fully hydrate and soften. Stopping early leaves them firm, while overcooking can make the stew mushy as the starch breaks down.

Flavor stand-ins for the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, garlic, lentils, broccoli, pepper, turmeric):

  1. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  2. Cashew nutbetter flavor fit
  3. Beansbetter flavor fit
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, garlic, lentils, broccoli, pepper, turmeric. 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.

You might also like

Illustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Brown BreadIllustrationBrown Bread461 recipesIllustration of Mutton BrothIllustrationMutton Broth292 recipesIllustration of Yorkshire PuddingIllustrationYorkshire Pudding264 recipes