I try to avoid stating the obvious, but “homemade cream soups” were not obvious to me in my first few years at home. I was so glad when someone shared how easy they are to make because I had heard how terrible canned soup is for you (loaded with salt and MSG and other preservatives).
So, I’ll assume there are others who may want to know how to make their own creamy soups!
Last night I made a cream of broccoli soup and it was FABULOUS! I served it as an appetizer course topped with a few green onions.
Here’s how I made it:
I melted about 1/2 stick of real butter in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. You can use more butter, depending on the size batch of soup you are making. You can also use olive oil.
I tossed in my chopped broccoli (about 2 cups) at this point to sautee. (I used frozen broccoli, partially thawed and chopped with hand-chopper.) Some people wait and put the broccoli in after the milk, but I like it this way better.
I then added about 2 heaping tblsp. of flour, and stirred around with a fork. It’s very pasty at this point and sometimes I add more butter.
Then I poured several cups of milk and added a few Tbls. of sour cream (optional). The soup will thicken as it simmers. I also sliced an onion and added while simmering, removing when the soup was done because I have a few who really hate biting into onions. You could also chop the onions (or mushrooms) and sautee them with the broccoli in the first step.
Right at the end, I added a handful of cheddar cheese, salted and peppered to taste and served!
This same recipe can be followed to make any kind of creamy soup. You can add potatoes (already cooked), asparagus, mushrooms, chopped chicken, tomatoes (which would make it a bisque) , or just leave it a cream sauce, add desired flavoring, and put in casserole dishes–we do that a lot.
So enjoy your cheaper, healthier creamy soup creation!
19 comments
Yum! great post. I think if more people knew how easy it was to make a real white sauce they’d stop buying a soup with 15 ingredients, most of them unnecessary and not healthy!
I love it when you post recipes because they are always the “slap my forehead/so basic/why haven’t I been doing this all along” type recipes. Essentials. Reading a few of your recipes is what led me to purchase your Back to Scrath e-book. I really wanted that tortilla recipe 😉
I’ll be honest. We don’t EAT cream of soups, but I do cook with them. So….could I make these and freeze them in certain portions to cook with later?
Brenda, yes, you can make your own soup to use in other recipes later. Our family has a lot of food allergies and cannot eat canned soups so I have always made our own and incorporated it into whatever. Fun to learn new things!
I’ve used this recipe and it works nicely if you want a mix you can make ahead.
from:
recipesource
I would leave out the bullion and use home-made broth:
Cream of Whatever Soup Mix
——– ———— ——————————–
2 C powdered milk
3/4 C cornstarch
1/4 C instant chicken bouillon granules (use broth instead)
2 t dried onion flakes
1 t crushed dried thyme
1 t basil – crushed dried
1/2 t pepper
To make 1 can soup, take 1/3 C mix and 1 C water, cook and stir until
thickened.
Here’s a recipe for a MIX you can use to substitute for Cream of Chicken or
Mushroom soup in your recipes. I have found it to be much less expensive
than the cans and it still freezes beautifully!
Thanks!!! I made it for lunch!! I didn’t know it was that easy. I’ve been buying “cream-of” soups all along but, now I won’t!!!! This is so much healthier!
How fun–glad you found it so easy. (We also make homemade chicken noodle soup which is one of the highest, I think, in sodium and MSG if you buy canned).
By the way, according to THIS article, canned soup is on the “Foods to NEVER eat list” 😉 We tried to stop buying them when my MIL began researching MSG to combat a degenerative disease she had.
You can make really excellent bisque style soups with skim milk and skip the roux if you use a cornstarch mixture, but for that you’ll want something with a lot of flavor behind it to begin with, like a mushroom or carrot soup. Just another tip 😉
I love that this is so flexible–more like instructions that a meticulous recipe.
Knowing there are no preservatives in it is awesome!
This looks awesome! Can’t wait to try it!
I’m Canadian and I think your ‘stick of butter’ is a different size. Any idea on how many grams/oz? or even cups you use?
Thanks for the recipe. I try to stay away from recipes that use canned soups, but now I don’t really have to, just have an extra little step to make the soup!
1/2 stick of butter is 4 tablespoons – which is the same as 2 oz
🙂
Thank you for sharing this “basic” recipe!! 🙂
Thank you so much!
I just learned how to make the most wonderful pastry crust. If this recipe works out I’ll try it with a chicken pot pie.
Yay!
We tried this soup last night and it was a hit with my family! That’s saying a lot b/c we have such picky eaters! Thanks for the recipe!!!!!
I just made cream of mushroom soup for lunch today. I start with sauteeing the mushrooms with onions, garlic, and thyme. Then I mix in the flour and some organic broth powder (sometimes chicken, sometimes beef). I mix in water and some milk and cook until thickened.
I make broccoli cheese soup in a very roundabout way…I use a recipe from the book Miserly Moms (one of my all-time favorites!) that repurposes one cup (just one cup!) of leftover mashed potatoes into a wonderful creamy potato-cheese soup. I usually double this recipe. It is basically a roux with onions (like you did, above) that you stir the leftover mashed potatoes and some grated cheese into. It is delicious! Use the leftovers for lunch the next day to make broccoli cheese soup, just adding a bit more cheese and leftover chopped broccoli. My kids say this is the best they’ve ever had. 🙂 I love it because it it two days in a row of using up leftovers!!! Win-win.
Leslie, I LOVE this. Thank you!