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Vegetable and Herb Soup

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 64 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4-5
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt half the butter in a large pan over low heat. Add the finely sliced shallots, leeks, celeriac and carrots with a pinch of salt. Cover and sweat gently for 8 minutes without browning.

  2. Add the white wine and let it bubble until reduced by about half. Add the water and chicken stock (use vegetable stock for vegetarians) and bring to a gentle simmer.

  3. Cut the courgette, French beans and Savoy cabbage into small pieces and add them with the fresh peas. Simmer gently for 10 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.

  4. Dice the blanched tomatoes, discarding any remaining skin and seeds. Add them to the soup with the caster sugar and season with salt to taste.

  5. Stir in the double cream and simmer for 3 minutes. Do not let the soup boil hard after the cream is added.

  6. Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the remaining butter in small pieces, then the chopped sorrel, chervil and chives.

  7. Shred the basil leaves and scatter them over the soup just before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Shallot + leektop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Beans + peastop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,441 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, leek, white wine, chicken, beans, peas):

  1. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  2. Chivebetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, leek, white wine, chicken, beans, peas. 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).