Name: Chicken and Spring Vegetable Soup
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 ¼ L (5 cups) water; 1 onion, sliced; 2 mL (½ tsp) whole black peppercorns; 2 dried bay leaves; 15 mL (1 tbsp) lemon juice; 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 225 g/½ lb); ¼ head cabbage, thinly sliced; 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets; 1 carrot, thinly sliced; 125 mL (½ cup) sliced mushrooms; Salt to taste

Why it works: Cabbage and broccoli match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 171 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.

Cabbage + broccolitop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Lemon + broccolitop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together809 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Broccoli + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Onion + broccolitop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,294 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breasts: Provides the main protein, which turns tender and firm when gently poached rather than boiled.
Onion: Releases sweetness and aroma into the broth as it cooks.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the broth.
Cabbage: Adds bulk and a tender-crisp texture as it simmers in the broth.

The step that matters

Check the chicken's internal temperature. Poultry must reach 74°C (165°F) to be safe to eat. Chicken that is cooked through is also firmer and less likely to be dry or stringy, so checking with a thermometer is more reliable than judging by colour.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, cabbage, broccoli, carrot, mushroom):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Coconutfits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, cabbage, broccoli, carrot, mushroom. 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
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Mushrooms	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Chicken and Spring Vegetable Soup