Name: White Bean and Pumpkin Leaf Soup
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 6 cups dried white beans; 1 bunch of fluted pumpkin leaves (ugwu); 1 red bell pepper , diced; 1 green bell pepper, diced; 1 teaspoon chile powder; 4 stock cubes; 7 cloves garlic , minced; 1 cup (or 1 handful) crayfish , finely- chopped or ground; 1½ large onions , diced; ¼ bottle of red oil; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Cooked meat for garnish

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).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Beans + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,935 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried white beans: Form the body of the soup and thicken it as they break down during simmering.
Fluted pumpkin leaves (ugwu): Add leafy texture and a distinct earthy, slightly bitter flavour to the soup.
Crayfish: Add a concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the broth.
Red oil: Adds fat, colour and a rich aroma to the soup.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma and savoury depth to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer the beans until soft. Beans must cook long enough to become fully tender; undercooked beans stay firm and grainy, and acidic ingredients added too early can slow softening, so the soup should be checked before seasoning is finalised.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pepper, clove, garlic, crayfish, onion, meat):

Limefits better
Avocadofits better
Lemonfits better
Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pepper, clove, garlic, crayfish, onion, meat. 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
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Bean	not in our table	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0
Crayfish	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0

White Bean and Pumpkin Leaf Soup