I’m answering a very good question today! Patricia asks,
“I am having difficulty in coming up with a better solution for that can of condensed cream soup that so many recipes call for. Do you have a solution? Surely to goodness, there has to be something better?”
I’ve got some recipes and ideas for you. First, you need to check out Sylvia’s 3 Cream of … Soup Recipes. She’s got a general formula to create whatever Cream of … Soup you need, whether it be chicken, mushroom or asparagus (and celery in the comments). The soups can be used right away (how could you not?), but if you’re planning ahead for easy meals, here’s what I suggest. Make a pot of soup, simmer longer (if necessary) to condense the soup base, then freeze in 2-cup portions — the equivalent of a 15- or 16-ounce can — for use in recipes that call for condensed soups.
Also check out Sylvia’s Cream of Tomato Soup. Sylvia blogs at The Christian HomeKeeper Network.
More Cream Soup Recipes
Back to cream soups! Here are four recipes to inspire your tweaks.
- Cream of Turkey Soup from Marg @ Prairie Sunrise
- Potato Cheddar Soup from Katie @ Riddle Love
- Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from Melissa @ The Keune Home
Other Thoughts
If you prefer not to use white flour in some of the recipes that call for it, play around with using arrowroot powder or non-GMO cornstarch instead. You would use 1 teaspoon of arrowroot or cornstarch for every tablespoon of flour. However, add those after everything else is sauteed and combined. Mix the starch with a little water or broth and mix in while whisking. Arrowroot flour/powder thickens while the mixture comes to a simmer, while cornstarch thickens after simmering. Here’s more info on thickeners.
What About You?
Do you have any Cream of … Soup recipes or formulas in your recipe box or blog archives? Feel free to share the recipe(s) or link(s) in the comments below!
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What specific brands are non-GMO corn starch? Does cornstarch have aluminum in it too? I’ve looked at my grocery store and they don’t say anything on them except that it’s cornstarch. I want to use a safe brand of cornstarch, but have no idea what brand to buy. Any advice would be great! Thanks!
Jill — Great question! I’m sure I can’t give you an exhaustive list, but I’ll tell you which one I know is fine. Rumford’s premium aluminum-free. Yes, aluminum is an issue, and this one states aluminum-free right under the word Rumford. The ingredients state that the corn is not-genetically modified.
Jill,
I have been able to find three brands of non-GMO cornstarch. They are: Frontier, Rapunzel, and Let’s Do Organic. I have been able to purchase them from United Natural Foods (UNFI) through a local buying club here on the East Coast.
Katherine
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I’ve resorted to using organic creamed soups for the recipes I make. I’d like to start making homemade creamed soups though, like cream of mushroom for my green bean casserole. I just bought 5 lbs. of Wilderness Family’s wild rice and am looking forward to making soup with it. There are some great ideas here to build off of.
Thank you for the great ideas! It’s been hard to find a gluten free alternative.
Also, although Healthy Valley carries a GF cream of chicken/mushroom, it’s quite high in salt. This will be a frugal tip for our family 🙂
Like Wardee, for a long time I would make a big batch of condensed cream of (usually chicken) soup and freeze it. But even doing that still turned all of my “quick, easy” recipes more difficult. So eventually I weeded them out. Once they weren’t so easy, they really weren’t all that appealing anymore! Sometimes I’ll use a roux to fix an old favorite, but now I just have a new arsenal of “quick, easy, real food” recipes to choose from instead–like fritattas, stir frys or some easy skillet dinners.
These are great ideas. Last year I had the same question and ended up making some of my own cream of chicken soup for the freezer. A funny thing happened though. Since I’ve been cooking more and more whole foods and traditional, I haven’t even needed the cream of soups! Not intentional, just naturally what happened.
I have made my own cream of mushroom and cream of onion (and a cream of mushroom/onion) that I canned up. Much easier than having to prepare from frozen! I don’t eat a lot of this kind of thing, but there are a few favorites that I have to put on the menu every now and then (tater tot casserole being one of them – using the most organic soy-free tots I can find).
I find that making my own cream of…. soups make the food that much better!
Do you have a recipe for your cream chicken soups and other cream soups that you said you canned. I have canned for years and have a condition called IC (look up IC diet) so all artificial and preservatives cause flare ups. So being able to make my own creamed soup would be great.
i home make crream soups instead…just takes minutes
For a terrific creamy soup that doesn’t involve grains or other thickeners, try steaming some cauliflower separately, then just pureeing in the blender with some water, broth, milk, or whatever liquid you like. Add it to your soup for a delicious creamy base. I have also done this with a lightly roasted butternut squash.
I use Heavenly Homemakers recipe: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-cream-of-mushroom-soup
I like to use the recipe from Stephanie O’Dea’s book, “Make it Fast, Cook it Slow”. There are actually two of them, one to make and use right away and one for a large batch, in the crock-pot, to store in the freezer for later use.
I just make a basic roux (white sauce) w the cream from our raw milk abd it has always worked like a charm.
I have to also give a vote for just weeding out all those recipes calling for canned cream soup :-). I do have a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated for a scratch version of a green bean casserole which actually builds its own cream sauce using butter, mushrooms (browning them well), garlic and herbs, a little flour, chicken stock and cream and is quite delicious. I have used the same method to make a “from-scratch” version of poppyseed chicken which turned out amazing. However, on the whole, I have found that cooking more traditional foods and from scratch I have gotten away from all the recipes using cream soups, as they were created in a culture of processed convenience foods. And, making those soups from scratch means that those recipes aren’t quite so easy and convenient anymore.
On the other hand, I have also found that there are tons of amazing recipes out there that are super simple and delicious, especially more authentic versions of French, Italian and Mexican cooking that use simple, fresh ingredients but are usually simpler than their American counterparts. And of course, the better quality ingredients you’re using, the less you need to do to them to make them shine :-).
^^^That
Thank you for this article! I literally stopped to look at the label from the can of cream of mushroom soup I just added to a recipe 10 minutes ago, and was appalled and shocked at the ingredients. MSG? Soybean oil? Corn syrup? REALLY? Yikes! I will be looking for alternatives. I have bookmarked this page!