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Asparagus Soup

A soup made with split peas, asparagus, celery, lettuce, onions, gravy, cream, and spinach juice for coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Lettuce and spinach 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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Soak the split peas, then boil until soft.

  2. Rub the peas through a sieve and mix in the gravy.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, stew the celery, asparagus, and lettuce in the water for about an hour.

  2. Add the peas and gravy mixture, and stew for another hour.

  3. Stir in the cream and color with spinach juice.

  4. Bring to a boil and 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lettuce + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas
Break down into a thick purée that gives the soup its body.
Asparagus
Contributes the main vegetable flavor and a green, tender texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Celery
Adds savory aromatic flavor as it softens in the water.

The step that matters

Rubbing the peas through a sieve. Cooked split peas must be pressed fully smooth so the soup has an even, velvety body rather than a grainy or lumpy texture.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, asparagus, lettuce, celery, cream, spinach):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, asparagus, lettuce, celery, cream, spinach. 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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