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Dried Green Peas Soup

A soup made from split green peas, butter, spinach juice, and lettuce, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Dried Green Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine split green peas, water, and butter in a pot.

  2. Simmer gently until the peas can pass through a colander.

  3. Prepare spinach juice and chop the lettuce.

  4. Add the spinach juice and lettuce to the soup.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Spinach + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

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

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

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

  3. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Peas + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together550 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 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

Split green peas
Provide the bulk and body that thickens the soup as they break down.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Spinach juice
Adds color and a fresh, green flavor to the soup.
Cos lettuce
Adds leafy freshness and a mild, sweet vegetable note.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the peas can pass through a colander. Boiling vigorously can break the soup unevenly and scorch the bottom of the pot. A gentle simmer lets the peas soften evenly so they can be pushed through and give a smooth, uniform texture.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, spinach, lettuce, pepper. 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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