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Asparagus Soup, with Green Peas

A creamy soup made with asparagus, green peas, onion, butter, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup, with Green Peas

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.

Prepare

  1. Trim the asparagus and cut it into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the onion until translucent.

  2. Add the asparagus and green peas, then pour in the broth.

  3. Simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Blend the soup until smooth, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  4. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + chickentop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together539 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable body and fresh, green flavour to the soup.
Green peas
Add natural sweetness and body, thickening the soup slightly when blended.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounded, rich mouthfeel and helps sweat the onion gently.
Onion
Builds a savoury aromatic base as it softens in the butter.

The step that matters

Sautéing the onion until translucent. Cooking the onion gently over medium heat softens it and draws out its sweetness without browning. Browning would add bitter, toasted notes that clash with the bright green flavour of the soup.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, chicken, onion, butter, 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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