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Soup

Dried Green Peas Soup

A soup of split green peas strained and combined with spinach, lettuce, cucumber and young peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dried Green Peas Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. In a pot, combine split green peas and soft water.

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

Add the vegetables

  1. In a separate pot, add spinach puree, cos lettuce, sliced cucumbers, and young peas to the pea liquor.

  2. Stew gently until all vegetables are extremely tender.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and chopped mint.

Finish the soup

  1. Rub 2 ounces of butter with 1 tablespoon of flour.

  2. Add the butter and flour mixture to the soup.

  3. Boil for 10 minutes.

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. Lettuce + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Spinach + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together355 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  5. Peas + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 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
Break down during simmering to give the soup its body and thick texture.
Spinach puree
Adds green colour and a earthy vegetable flavour to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when heated with the butter and boiled.
Young peas
Contribute sweetness and a fresh, bright pea flavour.

The step that matters

Boil for 10 minutes after adding the butter and flour mixture. Flour thickens liquid only when its starch reaches a boil and swells. Boiling also cooks out the raw flour taste. Stir the mixture in well first so it does not form lumps.

Swap the peas

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

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

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