Happy Mother's Day!

This looks like a great idea. I may have to try it, but I have no immersion blender. Any ideas how to get around that?

Sounds great!

One thing though - I think that two cups is 16 fluid ounces, not 12. No biggie. But you may want to take it into account when using this soup in recipes.

I love your blog and I've been newly inspired to use my crock pot (even) more often. I've been a crocker for years & years but it's good to find new & great things to do with it.

fixed it, mamacat! thank you. the internet led me astray...

xox
steph

Happy Mother's Day to you!

Okay, so I have a question about freezing cream-of-soups. One time, I made this fabulous creamy chicken tortilla-type soup, and froze it in individual servings to take for lunch. Upon reheating, the texture was ALL WRONG - like the cream-of-soups that I used in it (chicken and onion) wouldn't re-mix with all of the other ingredients. It was horrible. I sort of just assummed that the cream-of-soups were to blame, but maybe I am wrong if you, oh-goddess-of-the-crock, are choosing to purposely freeze your soup!?!?!

angela, I'm so sorry I missed your comment. If you don't have an immersible blender, you can CAREFULLY blend in batches in your regular counter-top blender.

damsel, lol on the goddess. I totally want a tiara now. and a sash! and a servant! ;-)

I don't really know. I am really just kind of winging it over here. I would guess maybe it's the thickener they add to the stuff? Or becaused it's condensed and not as liquidy?

This cream-of-soup is NOT very thick. It's like, um, mushroom soup. ;-) I totally want to keep typing to see if the answer comes to me, but so far it hasn't...

xoxo
steph

Do you think you could use unsweetened rice milk? 'Cause I found out this week I need to drop gluten and dairy and I loves me some mushroom soup. It probably wouldn't thicken properly, would it?

I doubt that it would matter if you use rice milk. What thickens soups such as this is the addition of flour or cornstarch. I didn't see either in the recipe, so I don't think it's meant to thicken.

BTW, I've really been enjoying this website. I tried your recipe for Korean ribs last week. Very good stuff!

laughingatchaos, I agree with ewokgirl that the unsweetened rice milk would work okay. This isn't a very thick soup---I toyed with the idea of putting in cornstarch, but opted not to, because I didn't know how it would work being frozen and then thawed. The flavor is quite intense---I was pleased. If you test it out, let me know!

ewokgirl, thank you! the korean ribs were one of my favorites.

xox
steph

came by to wish you a happy mother's day...

I look in on your page every so often and it is always a treat to see what you have come up with!

*hugs*

kimberly~

Stephanie, since you are so crockpot-savvy, and since my slow-cooker just died, do you have any recommendations about the best kind to buy for ordinary daily family use? I'd definitely like to find one that does not heat up externally, which my recently deceased one did do. Thank you!

I made a batch of cream of mushroom soup with rice milk a couple of years ago and it worked pretty well. I tinied the link since it is long.

http://tinyurl.com/5gse72

It sounds delicious! I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day! I did. I got just what I asked for, and my family took me to eat at my favorite restaurant even though it is over an hour away!

oceandreams, thank you--I hope you had a wonderful day, too.

face to thesunshine, I use a 6qt Smart Pot for my every-day crockpot. Target and Walmart sell them or you can order directly from Crock Pot. I'm sorry to hear that your other one bit the dust!

jen, your mushroom soup post sounds absolutely delicious! Thank you for sharing it!

kristen, a dinner out sounds wonderful. I'm glad that you had a nice evening out with your family.

xoxo
steph

Looks delish! Maybe chopping the mushrooms and not blending would make the soup more white? Either way, yum!

I never realized that cream of mushroom soup was a "real" food that you could actually make. It's always sort of reminded me of somethiing along the lines of "mystery meat"! Maybe now I won't be quite s scared of it.

Sounds great.

Damsel - milk and cream often separate upon defrosting. That would change your texture. It's still good to eat though. Jersey milk is the exception to this.

If you wanted it thicker like the canned stuff, a tablespoon or so of rice flour whisked through the milk should help.

I'd imagine it's the blending of the mushrooms that makes it brown. Commercial stuff would have much less mushroom in it and probably some colouring agent to give the cream colour. So brown is better IMO

What do you think about using canned mushrooms instead of fresh and how many cans do you think would be good?

(I'm trying to cut down on costs and I have a BAJILLION cans of mushrooms in my cupboard)

Hi Sarah! I think if you have a bajillion cans of mushrooms, you should totally use them. I think they would work just fine---definitely drain first, then use the rest of the recipe. As for how many cans---I don't know. Are they 10oz cans? 2? 3? When you open and drain them, I'd use your best judgement; it's not going to hurt anything to have them overly mushroomy.

let me know how it comes out!
xox
steph

I believe they are the 8oz cans!!

OO OO OO!! One more question *hee hee* I don't have any vegtable broth, would chicken be alright? (*ahem*...your chicken broth recipe hee hee)

hi Sarah, lol. Give it a try! The best way to figure it out is to try, right? I'm really interested to see how it turns out!
xox
steph

Dear Steph,

lol it works like a charm with canned mushrooms. I used 4 cans and chicken broth it tastes fine :) Just waiting for it to cool enough for it to be able to be bagged :)

~Sarah

ack! thank you SO much, Sarah, for reporting back! This is so good to know for the future!

xoxox
steph

Another delicous recipe. I used evaporated skim milk in about 1/2 the quantity as regular milk to make the soup more concentrated for use in casseroles. Wow does this taste great. Used it in the cream cheese chicken, adding a 2T slurry of sweet rice flour with the cream cheese. Amazing!
Thanks for all of your testing and tweaking!

I was trying to figure out if this is equivalent to the condensed soup or the soup with water already added? That would make a difference in how it is used. Thanks.

Hi Shannon, I use it in lieu of condensed soup. It's a bit thinner, but has much more flavor.

xoxo
steph

I'm so excited to try this! I've only been gluten free for a month and this is the thing I miss most.

tell me, do you like Progresso mushroom soup? It's gf but I don't like it in cooking as much as I did the cream of stuff.

Hi Kelli,

I haven't tried the Progresso mushroom soup. We like their clam chowder a lot, though.

xox
steph

I just wanted to let you know that I ordered some homemade cream of mushroom soup at a little German resturant last weekend and it was very dark like yours. It was absolutely delicious, so now I am going to try it myself! Just thought you'd like to know that.

Thanks for replying, but I don't think I asked my question correctly. :-) What I was wondering is this, if you were going to sit down and eat a bowl of condensed cream of mushroom soup, you would have to add milk or water when you cooked it. With your recipe, if you wanted to eat a bowl of it would you have to add any liquid or would you eat it as it? Thanks for filling me in!

Have you ever had tuna noodle casserole? I was raised on it, basically its a can of tuna, can of cream o mush and some noodles. My question is how do you think this wood work? The soup is supposed to be the saucy part so would your soup be to thin?

PS I live on your site I swear 10 out of 14 days my dinners come from here

Hi Stephanie,
So sorry I have not sent dimensions for the trefoil cookie cutter... I haven't had the chance to look. However, I did make cream of mushroom soup today. I played with the procedure a little bit, but here is what I did and I turned out very well. I used a 4Q pot and cut down all the ingredients by 25%. I didn't have Italian seasoning, so I used poultry seasoning and a little oregano. I cooked it for 3 and a half hours on high and then blended it in a standard blender. I basically put all the mushrooms in the blender with a little bit of stock and gradually added more stock and blended until it got to a thick pasty consistency. Then I poured that mixture into a bowl and whisked in a little more stock and then poured in the milk until it was the right color and consistency that I was looking for. I don't think I got anywhere near the 3/4 Quarts I was aiming for. That left me with 3 cups of mushroom stock that I put in my freezer for future recipes and probably 6-8 cups of soup to be packed up. I haven't done it yet, so I am not sure how much I have. Anyway, it is a great recipe and I am glad to have the convenience of ready made cream soup with out the HFCS.

I finally got around to trying this soup. I've never been a huge mushroom fan, but I use a lot of canned soups in my crockpot and casseroles, and have been looking for a way to cut down on the MSG & sodium. Oh my! The smell of this in my house all afternoon was just wonderful! I did make a couple of modifications like chicken broth for vegetable (because that's what I had) and I used 4 cups of plain yogurt rather than milk. (I overbought on yogurt) I think the yogurt helped to thicken it up a bit, but I'll be curious to see how it freezes. Overall, not necessarily more economical than canned, but definitely healthier and more flavorful.

Hi! I'm very excited about trying this recipe! My question is this... does it make a difference if the milk is added while the soup is warm? I'm asking cuz if I cook it overnight, but then run out of time in the morning, can I just stick it in the fridge for the day and then come home and blend it and add the milk later? or should I go ahead and add the milk while it's warm? Any thoughts?

Thanks!!
Becky :)

Hi Becky,

I think it doesn't really matter---the milk is just to cream it up, and it will mix with the other stuff even if it's cold.

good luck!
-steph

awesome, thanks for the quick answer and for your advice! I'm trying it as we speak :)

I have a thought as to why your soup is so much darker than canned. The mushrooms in the canned soup probably have all (or most) of the ribs removed before they cook it. I would guess either because they may react with the metal in the can or because someone decided that a rich-looking soup is not as attractive as a lighter one.

This is delicious and I wanted to weigh in on some comments I've noticed.

First off, to make a soup thick you must make a roux, or a slurry. The idea of a roux is it cooks off that yucky flour taste. A slurry (equal parts of a starch like flour and water, shaken vigorously in a jar) is a good substitute in the crock pot because it will have plenty of time to cook off the flour taste. adding flour directly in will result in... LUMPS!
dun dun DUNNN!

One more thing, for any cream-of soups like this, you should add your milk or cream very shortly before you serve. I think this will not do well in the freezer with the milk. If I'm wrong, I'd love to know, cause that would make life much easier. I normally make the soups sans dairy, freeze, and then add the cream when I reheat.

Just a theory... maybe the you could gain both a whiter colour and a creamier soup by using a little less liquid and a huge proportion of mushroom stems (ie the white bits)? For instance replace some of the liquid with mushroom stems and chop the dark bits off the most or all of the mushrooms. I'm not sure how much flavour the stems have if much at all but I'm definately going to test that one next time I cook mushrooms.

This is a brilliant blog! Thanks :)

if i use chicken of celery instead of mushrooms could I make cream of anything I want soup?

@ Erin Davis, Yes. I am planning on making mine with mushrooms and celery (my favorite cream soups to cook with). That way I can 'cheat' and not have to make and store 2 different soups, as I always like to mix them anyway. :)

I'm intrigued by this. I always thought that cream soups had flour or cornstarch or something roux-like in it. I'm really excited to have found this because I've been wishing I knew how to make something to replace canned cream soups. I am loving this blog! I don't always follow the recipes to the tee, but that's usually more about me not having the ingredients on hand. Thanks for all the info you provide!!

Oh, YUMMY mushroom soup. It makes such a huge pot that I've got a bunch in the fridge for my lunches this week and was still able to save eight little bowls in the freezer to use in other things. I used beef broth instead of veg, but otherwise stuck to the recipe. I love the little mushroom particles in the canned soup, so saved some of my mushrooms to blend a little coarser than the rest, and ohhh, my. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy canned soup in years (ever since I read the label), and am really excited to have this in my cooking arsenal. Thanks so much!

I was so excited to try this one! My son was diagnosed with celiac late in 2010. I have been looking for a substitute for cream soups. I made this today. I felt like a lot of the liquid evaporated on me, but that was fine. I did store most of it in the freezer in baggies to use in dishes later, but today I boiled some fresh spinach, added soup to it, Parmesan cheese, and then baked it. My son has really missed creamed spinach, but this turned out perfect!! He loved it!! I see myself making this every few months to keep on hand! Thanks so much!!

I have made this twice. First time I followed the ingredients exactly and I thought it was a bit heavy on the italian seasoning. the second time I just didn't add any italian seasoning and used low fat cream cheese instead of the milk. it is thicker and whiter. So yummy! Has anyone else had trouble with their bags leaking when you thaw them?

Instead of freezing this, would it be possible to omit the milk for now and can the soup? Not sure if this would can and preserve well using the pressure cooker method or not. I could always add milk later.

can I just say that you are my hero. I want to be like you when I grow up :-) as a (new) stay at home mom your recipes have not only rescued me, but led my husband to believe that I am a super mom and a soux chef lol! Thank you for all your hard work!!

Just had a thought - if you leave the milk out of the soup, it should freeze without separating. Then you could add the milk when you use it. Or cream... I think I would use heavy cream, but that's just me.

I made this and it turned out beautifully! I measured mine out in 1 1/2 C measurements to get the closest to the measurement from the store bought canned soup. I couldn't believe how much it made. Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes! This was not only a yummy recipe, but frugal as well!!!

I made this recipe and it is so good. I used unflavored gelatin (not sure if that is gluten free though) and it made it nice and thick. I didn't want to freeze it so I canned it in a pressure cooker and it turned out great!

Second time to make this awesome soup... This time added a head of freshly roasted garlic! NOMNOM

It's brown because it's REAL ! Also I just blend everything in a blender first, while it's cold. Gets around using an immersion blender while it's hot. I actually do this on the fly all the time and use it in recipes without the slow cooker time being necessary then, like when I make casseroles.

I imagine that the store bought soups are thick because of all the flour they add. I would think that all that flour also lightens the color.

Beautiful soup! Must try.

You are a Slowcooker God . I've been trying desperately to cut sodium from my diet and eat good food. Thank you for helping!