Name: Puree of Peas or Lentils
Ingredients: 2 cups peas or lentils; 4 cups water; 1 stale roll; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 6 fresh spring onions or leeks; 1 bunch fresh sweet herbs; a few leaves of spinach; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Pepper and spinach are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Puree of Peas or Lentils

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the peas or lentils for 2 hours.
Boil them in 4 cups of water until they begin to dissolve.
Strain through a sieve and return to the pot.

Make the puree

Crumble the stale roll into the liquid and season with pepper and salt.

Add the vegetables

Finely chop the spring onions or leeks, sweet herbs, and spinach.
Cook the chopped vegetables in butter, then stir into the puree.

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.

Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,400 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Peas + spinachtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together550 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Onion + spinachtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,336 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,460 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

Peas or lentils: Form the main body of the puree as they break down during boiling.
Stale roll: Absorbs liquid and helps thicken the puree to a smooth body.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour from the cooked vegetables into the puree.
Spring onions or leeks: Contribute mild savoury aroma and flavour when cooked in butter.

The step that matters

Boil until the peas or lentils begin to dissolve. Legumes must be cooked long enough to soften and break down; under-cooked pulses stay grainy and will not form a smooth puree after straining.

Swap the peas

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

Sesamefits better
Chickpeafits better
Black-eyed peafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, spinach, butter. 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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Puree of Peas or Lentils