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Lentil Soup

A hearty soup made with lentils, onion, herbs, and butter, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lentils

  1. Wash lentils and soak them overnight in lukewarm water, then drain.

  2. Combine lentils and cold water in a saucepan, bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 to 2 hours.

Make the soup

  1. Melt butter in a separate saucepan and sauté onion, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf until browned.

  2. Add the sautéed mixture to the soup and boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  3. If the lentils are tender, press the mixture through a colander, return to heat, and season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Bring the soup to a boil once more and serve with croutons.

  2. Alternatively, beat one egg in the serving bowl and gradually stir in the hot soup.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Lentils + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lentils + thymetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 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

Dried lentils
Provide the main body and thickness of the soup as they break down during simmering.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth when sautéed until browned.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the onion mixture.
Egg (in the method)
Enriches and thickens the soup when stirred in as an alternative finish.

The step that matters

Simmering the lentils until tender. Lentils need enough time in gently simmering liquid to soften fully. Undercooked lentils stay firm and grainy, so the soup will not press smoothly or taste right.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Lentilsthe original
  4. Beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter. 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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