Why it works: Cardamom and basil share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
The recipe
10 servingsIngredients
Contains: milk, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped jalapeno and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.
Stir in the dry mustard, ground coriander, smoked paprika, ground ginger, ground cardamom and ground turmeric. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
Add the cubed yams and cauliflower florets and stir to coat them in the spices.
Pour in the water and coconut milk, then add 1 tablespoon soy sauce, the bay leaf and the cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes until the yams are tender.
Remove and discard the bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Stir in the drained, rinsed cannellini beans and simmer for 5 minutes to heat through.
Puree the soup with an immersion blender until mostly smooth, or leave some chunks if you prefer. Season with salt, black pepper and the remaining 1 teaspoon soy sauce.
Stir in the chopped basil and parsley, adjusting the parsley to taste. Ladle into bowls and top each serving with crumbled goat cheese.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cardamom + basiltop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Pepper + basiltop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,292 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Olive + basiltop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,868 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Cauliflower + beanstop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together290 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pepper + cardamomtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together832 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, yam, cauliflower, pepper, coconut, milk, beans):
- Turmericbetter flavor fit
- Corianderbetter flavor fit
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Jalapenothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, yam, cauliflower, pepper, coconut, milk, beans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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