Cream soups are a staple of modern American cooking. Whenever I look in recent cookbooks it seems like many of the main dishes call for Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Celery or Cream of Chicken Soup. When we were first married we lived near Aldis stores and things weren't that expensive and I would just buy it. Then when we moved up here it wasn't that cheap and I got frustrated that it was in nearly everything and then thanks to The Tightwad Gazette I learned how to make it myself. It has been a long time now since I have bought any. Not only is that easier on my wallet but better for our health too.
Here is the process:
Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 tablespoon butter or oil
1 tablespoon flour (I do prefer to use white flour for this as whole wheat is not so smooth)
1-2 tablespoon chopped up mushrooms. For this I have used the normal canned mushrooms (and if so then I will use the water the are in as part of the liquid), Dried Shitaki Mushrooms that have been rehydrated or mushrooms that we have gathered from our woods (Don't do this unless you know what you are doing!).
1 1/2 cups milk (Dry milk and water work well too, you can also use the mushroom water as part of this).
Salt and Pepper
To make: In a pan on medium heat saute mushrooms lightly in butter or oil. Add flour and carefully brown a bit (or don't worry about browning it- not that important). Add liquid and salt and pepper to taste and cook and stir (with a whisk) until thick. This is basically like making gravy. Than use as desired.
I recently made Hamburger Rolls with homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup.
To make Cream of Celery or Cream of Onion Soup simply use celery or onions in place of the mushrooms.
To make Cream of Chicken Soup skip the mushrooms and then use Chicken broth (with some small meat chunks if you want) instead of milk and then add in a couple of tablespoons of dry milk.
Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I love to hear what you do and just love hearing from you in general!
I am linking this to Frugal Friday at Life as MOM.
It's cheaper, healthier AND it tastes better! I just use:
ReplyDelete1 T butter
1 T flour
1/2 c chicken broth (made from boullion granules)
1/2 c milk
I'll never go back to that nasty canned stuff!
I make my own too, with a similar recipe. Tastes so much better!
ReplyDeleteI don't buy canned soups either....thank you for this recipe!
ReplyDeleteI don't buy these other, but we also don't cook with them. My oldest, who has sensory issues will not eat many mixed foods. Plus I try to avoid dairy. But I have been craving a tuna noodle casserole my mom used to make, do you think Almond milk will work? Then I can just leave some plan noodles for my son.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. I quit making recipes that used cream of anything just because they were so full of salt and unhealthy. I wanted to find a recipe for them but all I found were just too much work for me.these recipes sound easy and won't be expensive to make.
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to try this (From the Tightwad Gazette). Have you ever tried freezing it? I am worried that if I don't buy it and I'm in a hurry...It seems easy enough, though. Thanks for all the wonderful ideas on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI hope this works well for all of you!
ReplyDeleteBecky, I think almond milk would work.
Anonymous, I have tried freezing it and it works okay if you are going to use it later in a hotdish. It does tend to seperate a bit but just stir it up and put it in your hotdish and I think it works fine.