Skip to main content
Soup

Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

A meatless green pea soup made from pounded and sieved peas, with cucumber, lettuce, onion, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Green Peas Soup, Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Boil the peas in 5 pints of water for about 30 minutes.

  2. Drain and pound the peas in a mortar.

  3. Gradually mix in the cooking liquid until smooth.

  4. Return the mixture to the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Press the mixture through a fine sieve into a pot.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter.

  2. Sauté the cucumbers, lettuce, onions, parsley, and mint over low heat for about 1 hour, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Drain the vegetables and add them to the strained pea stock.

  4. Simmer until the butter rises to the surface.

  5. Add ½ to ¾ pint of young peas and serve immediately.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Cucumber + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together884 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 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

Green peas
Form the body of the soup, thickening it into a smooth purée when pounded and sieved.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Cucumbers
Contribute moisture and a light, fresh flavour once softened in the pan.
Lettuce hearts
Soften when sautéed, adding body and a mild, sweet vegetable flavour.
Onions
Sweeten and deepen the flavour of the soup as they cook slowly.

The step that matters

Sautéing the vegetables over low heat. Cooking slowly softens the cucumbers, lettuce and onions gently and draws out their sweetness without browning them, which would change the pale, fresh colour and flavour of the soup.

Swap the mint

The recipe marks mint as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, butter, cucumber, lettuce, onion, white pepper, parsley):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, cucumber, lettuce, onion, white pepper, parsley. 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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes