Obsessed with Soup? Perhaps!

It has been chilly in St Louis.  Today is gray again, too.  All this cold fall weather has soup on my brain . . .

So I was thinking about the recipe I posted last week, and I realized that some friends, like Abby, are not big into the canned soup as a base for a more substantial soup.  So I thought I would share a couple of homemade creamed soup recipes.

This recipe is very similar to one I used to keep on hand.  Now that I am thinking of it again, I think I’ll mix up a batch soon.  This is a good way to save some money, and it is very handy to be able to use this as a base for soup or when a casserole recipe calls for a can of creamed soup.  (I got this one from Cooks.com, but there’s also a good one in the Once a Month Cooking cookbook.)

CONDENSED CREAM SOUP MIX

2 c. nonfat milk powder
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. low sodium chicken bouillon granules
2 tbsp. dried onion flakes
1 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1 tsp. whole thyme
1/2 tsp. pepper

Mix all ingredients and store in airtight container. Makes 3 cups.To substitute for 1 can cream soup, combine 1/3 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cups water. Heat to boiling. Cook and stir until thickened. Equivalent to 9 cans soup.

If you’re looking for an even more homemade taste, click here for another you might want to try.

6 thoughts on “Obsessed with Soup? Perhaps!”

  1. Good reminder! I got out my Quick & Healthy cookbook, and their recipe is virtually identical. I used to keep it on hand and need to do that again.

  2. Well…here in Dallas these days, we’re not obsessed with soup, we’re LIVING in soup…or at least that what is what it feels like as we have week after week of damp, misty, foggy weather that turns into rain most every day. Even in the few hours it doesn’t actively rain, the sun never shows its face…maybe he has gone to the Caribbean for a vacation or somesuch! Each morning when I walk outside I am overcome with the thick weight of the humidity in the air, it is almost beginning to feel suffocating in a way! Ah well, I guess I am thankful there is no drought, but I hope we can enjoy some of the nice cool weather SANS rain soon!!

    Love the link you shared for the cream soup with veggies pureed into it. I don’t often remember you can do that to add “thickness” to a soup! Much of the chickie broth i use for my soups is homemade from chicken bones after we’ve eaten the bird, and I always throw in veggies to flavor the broth, but I may go the step further and freeze the pureed veggies in addition to freezing the broth, so I can pull them out to pop in the soup as a great and healthy thickener. wonderful idea!!

    You guys have sampled my meal of potato soup that I make similarly to that recipe. It is not my healthiest soup ever bc I like to start wtih some bacon and onion for super flavor!! But oh it is a nice winter soup!!

  3. Tricia,
    Sorry your weather has been so yucky. Ours has been rainy, but cold. So you don’t feel the humidity as much.

    The potato soups sounds great. We may have tastes some at some point, but I am not remembering. But I would love to have the recipe if you get a chance to send it.

    Mom,
    I fogot the creamed soup recipe is in the Q&H cookbook. I have it in another cookbook, too. I am putting the ingredients on my list for my next trip to the store.

  4. We’ve had the soup either this Christmas or the one before when we had a soupfest at our home for an evening meal. The potato soup was popular with your kids as I recall! I don’t have a recipe exactly…this is one more I need to actually write down b/c I improvise according to whatever seems best each time I make it!

  5. hilarious that i am your example of someone who doesn’t like canned soup! i looked at the recipe part when you first posted it the other day (and was impressed), but somehow missed that it was particularly for people like me 🙂 i have actually made my own cream of chicken-ish substitute using joy of cooking’s recipe- flour, milk/cream, chicken stock, etc. it’s fabulous! i could just eat the pot of the creamed chicken! but it is quite a bit of work. it makes a fantastic chicken pot pie though- pretty much worth the effort, but not realistic enough to do often.

    i actually do use the regular old can of cream of chicken on occasion for one recipe that calls for all manner of foods i would usually consider beneath me. (kidding about the beneath me part) it’s this deal with flour tortillas and jarred salsa and sour cream and chicken and cheese. none of those alone is beneath me at all, of course, but the end product is very casserole-y /campbell’s soup can recipe-ish (because i think that actually is where it originally came from), but very good too. i don’t think i’ve ever used cream of chicken in a soup though.

    i once bought a jar of bouillon granules because someone gave me a recipe that called for it, but i didn’t like the recipe enough to make it again. so the bouillon just sat in my pantry for years until i threw it out. isn’t it funny how some people’s staples are some people’s “i don’t know what to do with this” ingredients? and if i’d had this recipe, i would have known what to do with all that bouillon! i’ve had almost an identical experience with dried onion flakes. if you post some more recipes using those two ingredients, maybe i’ll pick them up next time i’m grocery shopping- i won’t say where 😉

  6. Abby,
    I am glad to hear you occasionally use a recipe that calls for canned soup! But I think I’ll have to find the creamed chicken recipe you mention, too, because it sounds like something I would like to have for certain occasions.

    So I actually went in to Dierbergs the other night because it was right next to Little Caesars where we were getting our kids some pizza. I was looking for chicken wings for Mark and me. The same brand at D was $2.50 more than than SnS. I still bought them because it was late and I just wanted to be home.

    But I went to SnS last night on the way home from FB practice, and I bought 2 bags of the wings to keep in the freezer since I was then aware of the price difference between the two stores and because it was $10 coupon day.

    That being said, I will likely go to Dierbergs now and again since I recently found out that they will double coupons. So if I take the time to look at their sales circular and use double coupons, it could be a good place for me. I have always liked D better than Schnucks, so I predict a good experience is waiting for me! 🙂

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