Skip to main content
Main

Pea Soup

A hearty soup made from split peas, carrots, turnip, onion, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Pea Soup

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the split peas overnight in cold water.

  2. In a clean pan, combine the soaked peas and stock (ensure it is unsalted). If using hard water, add a small piece of baking soda.

Cook

  1. Bring the mixture to a slow boil. Once boiling, add the sliced vegetables.

  2. Simmer for at least three hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Rub the mixture through a sieve or colander.

  2. Reheat the soup, then add pepper, salt, and dried mint to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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 peas
Form the body of the soup as they break down and thicken the liquid during simmering.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens into the base.
Carrot
Contributes sweetness and body to the soup as it cooks down.
Turnip
Adds subtle earthy flavour and body as it softens during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for the full time. Split peas need a long, steady simmer to soften fully and release their starch, which thickens the soup. Cutting the cooking short leaves grainy peas and a thin texture.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, carrot, turnip, onion, 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.

More split pea soup recipes

Baked 20Yellow 4 See all 228 →

You might also like

Green PeasGreen Peas229 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesGreen Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipes