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Lentil Soup

A simple soup made with lentils, carrots, turnip, parsnip, onions or leeks, 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: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the lentils and soak them in water for a few hours.

  2. Chop the carrot, turnip, parsnip, and onions or leeks.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine the soaked lentils and chopped vegetables.

  2. Add enough water to cover the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender.

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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  3. Lentils + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lentils + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the main body and protein-rich bulk that thickens the soup as they break down.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color while holding its shape through simmering.
Onions or leeks
Build savory depth as they soften and release their aromatic flavor into the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the lentils are tender. Lentils need a steady simmer, not a hard boil, so they cook through evenly without breaking apart or scorching on the bottom of the pot. Check tenderness rather than relying on time alone, since lentil age and soaking affect cooking speed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, carrot, turnip, parsnip, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, carrot, turnip, parsnip, 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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