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Watercress and Pea Soup

This delicate, creamy soup is perfect for a spring day and works well served hot or chilled.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Watercress and shallot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 93 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Watercress and Pea Soup

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

443Calories
10 gProtein
34 gFat
26 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 13 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Watercress1 cup (34g)4
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Pea Shootsnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Watercress + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + watercresstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together469 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, watercress, butter, shallot, garlic, cream, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, watercress, butter, shallot, garlic, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.