Why it works: Lentils and tomato work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 463 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the soup
Rub the cooked lentils through a colander.
Combine the lentils, strained tomato, nut butter, and chopped celery in a pot.
Add water to reach the desired consistency.
Heat the mixture to boiling, then remove the celery.
Finish and serve
Season with salt, then stir in the browned flour mixed with a little water.
Boil for 2–3 minutes until the flour is cooked, then serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Lentils + tomatotop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together463 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Tomato + celerytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lentils + flourtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together248 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together316 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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.
Flavor stand-ins for the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, tomato, butter, flour):
- Cuminbetter flavor fit
- Turmericbetter flavor fit
- Capersabout as good a flavor fit
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, tomato, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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