I am always challenging myself to find ways to save a dollar while still making things from scratch that are healthy yet easy to make. A way I have found to accomplish this is to make my own canned soup base. These soups include cream of mushroom, cream of celery and cream of chicken soups. These soups all have the same base that you can modify depending on what soup you want to use. The ingredients for this soup base are simple one’s that you can have with your pantry staples to make anytime.
Additions/Substitutions
Cream of soup base is a very simple versatile recipe that can easily be switched up depending on your needs/ingredients you have on hand. To make cream of chicken soup, you will need 1 cup of chicken broth (which can be fresh from scratch, from a can, or re-constituted chicken bouillon), then add 1 cup of milk or cream. If you want cream of celery soup, you will add some finely chopped celery, or celery salt. To make cream of mushroom soup add finely chopped mushrooms. The mushrooms can be fresh, or I prefer canned sliced mushrooms as I can always have them on hand. If you want the soup to be creamier, then you can use heavy cream instead of milk.
Cream of Soup base
| Makes: | Prep Time: | Cook Time: |
| 2.5 cups | 5 min | 10 min |
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 4 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk or heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Make it
- In a saucepan, melt butter on low to medium heat **
- Add the flour and whisk until the flour is mixed in to make a roux.
- Add the cream or milk and whisk, making sure there are no clumps, and the sauce is smooth. Be sure to stir every minute or two to make sure it does not stick to the pan and burn. If it gets too thick you can add some more water or milk and stir it in. *
- Add the salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder, stir well and add to your recipe as instructed.
** Add either the finely chopped mushrooms, if wanting cream of mushroom soup or the finely chopped celery if you want cream of celery soup, and sauté until cooked through.
*Add 1 cup of chicken broth, and 1 cup of milk or cream if wanting cream of mushroom soup.