Thursday, January 07, 2010

Cream of Chicken (or other) Soup

You can make your own mix for cream of chicken or beef soup and store it in mason jars. It can be adapted fairly easily for mushroom and celery as well just sauté the amount of chopped fresh or canned mushrooms, or finely diced celery in a bit of butter in your saucepan before you make the soup from the mix. This is sure to be a money saver and is best for those people who are sensitive to the additives in pre-processed foods or who have food allergies.

How to make a Condensed Cream Soup Mix:
For each batch, you’ll need one quart jar and one pint jar to store. It’ll store on the pantry shelf up to a year.

4 cups instant non-fat dry milk

1 1/2 cups cornstarch

1/2 cup chicken or beef bouillon granules

1/3 cup dry minced onions

2 teaspoons mixed Italian herbs

1 teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon red pepper

¼ teaspoon black pepper

This equals 18 cans of condensed cream of chicken or cream of beef soup! It stores nicely in two jars!
To reconstitute (equal to one 10.5-ounce can of condensed cream soup), combine 1/3 cup mix and 1 1/4 cups water, either using a small saucepan on the stove or a microwave-safe bowl; cook and stir till mixture thickens. You should label the jars and note the directions to reconstitute the mix right on the lid or the label.


Enjoy and keep on saving!

2 comments:

CarolineNot said...

This will be wonderful to try, so I thank you for posting it. I use cream soups primarily as ingredients in casseroles. Is the measure of water for reconstituting meant to mimic the consistency of cream soup straight from the can, or should I use a lesser amount?

Jeannie said...

I like using this recipe for casseroles and such too. I usually follow it fairly close to how it's written, though I do admit that LOTS of times I don't take the time to look it up and end up guessing how much of what to put in. For me it is usually a tiny bit less thick as it comes out of the can but thickens up beautifully if heated just a tiny bit longer. I hope it works out well for you too!