Name: Really Good Vegetable SoupReally Good Vegetable SoupReally Good Vegetable Stock
Yield: Serves 4Makes about 9 cups
Ingredients: 4 cups Really Good Vegetable Stock (recipe follows); 1 1/4 teaspoons salt; 1 tablespoon white wine; 1/2 small acorn squash, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces; 2 small Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch squares; 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into sticks about 1 inch long and 1/4 inch wide; 1 plum tomato, peeled and chopped (optional); 2 tablespoons white rice; 3 tablespoons frozen peas; 2 tablespoons frozen corn; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice; 2 tablespoons safflower or vegetable oil; 2 leeks, cleaned, halved lengthwise, and sliced; 3 large onions, trimmed, peeled, and quartered; 1 head garlic, trimmed and cloves separated (but not peeled); 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks; 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks; 4 stalks celery, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths; 1 sprig fresh oregano; 4 sprigs fresh parsley; 2 bay leaves; 10 peppercorns

Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

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.

Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Plum + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,480 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Swap the plum

The recipe marks plum as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, acorn, potato, carrot, tomato, rice, peas):

Limefits better
Cherryfits better
Avocadofits better
Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, acorn, potato, carrot, tomato, rice, peas. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0
Safflower	not in our table	0

Really Good Vegetable SoupReally Good Vegetable SoupReally Good Vegetable Stock