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Cream Pea Soup with Croutons

A creamy soup made with green peas, vegetable broth, onion, and olive oil, served hot with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cream Pea Soup with Croutons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.

  2. Add chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Add green peas and vegetable broth.

  4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Blend the soup until smooth.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Serve hot, topped with croutons.

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.

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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Peas + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 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

Green peas
Provide the main body and sweet, vegetal flavor of the soup.
Vegetable broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the peas and sets the soup's consistency once blended.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the oil.
Olive oil
Carries flavor from the onion and gives the soup a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Sautéing the onion until translucent. Cooking the onion gently softens it and draws out sweetness without browning. Rushing over high heat can scorch it and leave a harsh, bitter taste in the finished soup.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, olive, 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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