Skip to main content
Main

Green Pea Soup

A creamy soup made from shelled peas, water, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Green Pea Soup

Why it works: Peas and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,434 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Green Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Combine shelled peas and water in a pot.

  2. Cook until the peas are soft.

  3. Skim out the peas.

  4. Pass the peas through a colander back into the pot with the cooking water.

  5. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, mix butter with rice flour (or all-purpose flour).

  2. Stir the thickening mixture into the soup, ensuring it is well combined.

  3. Cook until the soup reaches the consistency of good cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Peas + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Shelled peas
Provide the main body, sweet flavor and green color of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel.
Rice flour
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinizes when heated in liquid.

The step that matters

Stir the thickening mixture into the soup. Flour clumps if added dry or left unblended, so mix it with butter first and stir it in thoroughly. Then keep cooking so the starch fully gelatinizes and the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, rice):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, rice. 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.

You might also like

Green PeasGreen Peas229 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesGreen Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipes