Name: Pea Soup Without Meat
Ingredients: 1 pint split peas; 2 quarts water; 2 turnips, chopped; 2 carrots, chopped; 1 stick celery, chopped; potatoes, chopped; 1 large onion, sliced; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; coarse sea salt, to taste; black pepper, to taste; crispy fried bread, for serving

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas: Break down during long simmering to give the soup its body and thick texture.
Potatoes: Release starch as they cook, helping thicken the soup and make it creamy.
Flour: Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid and fat.
Butter: Adds richness and carries flavor from the onion through the soup.
Onion: Frying softens and sweetens it, adding savory aroma to the soup base.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and color as they soften in the soup.

The step that matters

Fry the onion in butter and flour. Cooking the flour in hot butter until it smells nutty, not raw, lets its starch thicken evenly and removes the raw flour taste. Stir constantly so the flour does not scorch or form lumps.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, celery, potato, onion, butter, flour):

Lentilsfits better
Beansfits better
Chickpeafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, celery, potato, onion, butter, flour. 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.

Pea Soup Without Meat