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Asparagus Soup, with Green Peas

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 and chop the asparagus, reserving the tips.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the onion until soft.

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

  3. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

  4. Blend the soup until smooth, then return to heat.

  5. Stir in cream if using, and season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Garnish with reserved asparagus tips before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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

Asparagus
Gives the soup its main vegetable flavour and body when blended.
Green peas
Add natural sweetness and a thicker, smoother texture once blended.
Vegetable or chicken broth
Provides the liquid base that cooks the vegetables and forms the soup.
Onion
Softened in butter to build a savoury, aromatic base.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and carries the flavour of the onion.
Cream
Adds richness and a silkier, rounder mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Blend until smooth. Blending breaks down the cooked cell walls of the asparagus and peas, so the soup becomes smooth; under-cooked vegetables will leave a grainy, fibrous texture.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

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