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Lentil and Tomato Soup

A simple lentil and tomato soup with celery, nut butter, and browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentil and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Rub the cooked lentils through a colander.

  2. Combine the lentils, strained tomato, nut butter, and chopped celery in a pot.

  3. Add water to reach the desired consistency.

  4. Heat the mixture to boiling, then remove the celery.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt, then stir in the browned flour mixed with a little water.

  2. Boil for 2–3 minutes until the flour is cooked, then serve.

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lentils + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked lentils
Provide the main body and bulk of the soup as they break down when rubbed through.
Strained tomato
Adds acidity and a tangy, savory flavor base to the soup.
Nut butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinizes when boiled, and adds a toasted aroma.

The step that matters

Boil the browned flour fully. Raw flour tastes pasty and floury. Boiling it for the full 2–3 minutes gelatinizes the starch so it thickens smoothly and the raw taste cooks off.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, butter, celery, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, butter, celery, flour. 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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