Dinner- Cream of Mushroom Soup
I do not serve cream of mushroom soup for dinner, but it is a staple in my kitchen. Making it from scratch is easy and once you have done it a time or two you will become a pro. It is something that sounds way fancier than it really is to make. You just need to remember one measurement - 1/4 cup. You can use this basic recipe to make a cream of whatever you would like soup. I have used it to make cream of chicken and cream of mushroom. You could also make cream of celery but my DH hates celery so I have never made a version with celery.
The one item you really need to make any cream soup is a great chopper. I have this model: Black+Decker HC306 1.5-Cup Electric Food Chopper. It is a small but powerful and useful kitchen tool. I love it so much that after a few years when my first one broke I bought another. The secret to a great cream soup is to cut your ingredients super tiny. The chopper allows this to happen. It also works great if you need to finely chop nuts.
Chop about 1/4 cup of onions and mushrooms (or chicken depends on what flavor soup you are making). Place into a saucepan with 1/4 cup of butter. Place over heat and wait until butter has melted.
Add in 1/4 cup of flour. If you need to make this gluten-free try a 1/4 cup of arrowroot powder. I would avoid cornstarch (too much cornstarch makes it tastes a little like paste). Mix in the flour. Here is my mixture just before I add the stock.
Add in 1/4 cup of stock. If you need to make it vegetarian select vegetable stock. You can also use chicken, turkey, beef, ham or lamb stock. I do not notice much of a flavor difference depending on the stock but then I do not just eat the soup. I use it in recipes that call for cream of mushroom soup. Whisk the mixture together, add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of whole milk. Whisk again until smooth. Set over a low heat. Within 5-10 minutes it should have thickened and be ready to eat.
Remove from heat. I use this in any recipe that calls for a cream soup base. The soup can be frozen. I think if you freeze it you should only use it in a recipe, not eat it thawed. Freezing sometimes does strange things to milk. The soup will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.
This version is way healthier with less sodium than any commercial soup you can purchase. Honestly I can whip this up in less than 10 minutes (not including the chopping).
Here is my secret for the chopping. I chop up a lot of mushrooms and onions at one time. I then premeasure them into small plastic bags and freeze. Whenever I need to make the soup I just grab a premeasured, prechopped baggie of mushrooms and onions from the freezer and proceed. I mean if you are going to all the bother to chop a few mushrooms and onions why not do the whole onion and mushroom container and premeasure your ingredients.