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Tapioca and Tomato Soup

A soup of tomatoes, vegetables, herbs, and tapioca simmered in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tapioca and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel, wash, and finely cut the carrot, turnip, and other vegetables.

  2. Stew the vegetables in butter for 10 minutes.

  3. Cut tomatoes into slices and chop onion finely.

  4. Cook tomatoes, onion, and water for about 20 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture.

  6. Peel onion and chop roughly.

  7. Fry onion with butter until browned.

  8. Add tomatoes (fresh sliced or tinned), bay leaves, and water; cook for 1/2 hour.

  9. Drain liquid through strainer or sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Add water, sliced tomatoes, herbs, pepper, and salt.

  2. When the soup is boiling, sprinkle in the tapioca.

  3. Let all cook until quite tender.

  4. Pass the soup through a sieve.

  5. Return it to the saucepan and boil it up before serving.

  6. Return liquid to saucepan, add remaining ingredients and seasoning.

  7. Let soup cook gently until rice is tender.

  8. Return soup to saucepan, add seasoning and vermicelli.

  9. Cook until vermicelli is soft (5-10 minutes).

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

133Calories
4 gProtein
1 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

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.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca (in the method)
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it body without making it heavy.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour, acidity, and colour of the soup.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and depth when fried until browned.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the soup base.

The step that matters

Sprinkling in the tapioca. Tapioca must be added to boiling liquid and stirred in, then cooked until fully tender; otherwise it can clump or stay gummy and cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, tomato, onion, pepper):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, tomato, onion, pepper. 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.

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