Make your own cream soup base at home, as a dry mix and a pantry staple. Dry mix helps save valuable pantry and kitchen space, and creating the mix in bulk helps save you time and money. Skip the pre-made canned cream soups, and make your own mix that’s just as easy to use.
As food prices rise weekly and more people struggle just to put food on the table I wanted to share a recipe that I make to stock my pantry, save money, and offer my family healthier foods — using real food ingredients and without chemicals and additives.
I spent some time this weekend making a large batch of dry cream soup mixes to stock my pantry. I used to make these mixes regularly when my children were young but I haven’t done a large batch since my husband became allergic to wheat in 2015. Though, I haven’t bought canned soup in 20+ years, I had forgotten what a treasure it was to make dry cream soup base and use it to make fresh soups and sauces on a week night. Making soup from these mixes saves both money and time.
Have you noticed how many recipes begin with a can of cream of mushroom soup (or cream of celery or cream of chicken)? A can of mushroom soup is about $2 here (or $4 for organic, gluten-free), but you can make a better version for less money, with a dry mix, like the one I’m sharing with you today. While you might be able to grab slightly cheaper cans of soup on sale, this mix will nearly always work out cheaper per serving than your least expensive pre-made options.
I made up 6 quart jars of this dried cream soup base this weekend, in less than an hour. Each quart jar will make the equivalent of 8 cans of soup, and it takes up less space on the pantry shelf. Even better, you can mix up just the amount of soup you need at one time, whether that’s one cup or five. Most cans of soup are two servings, so this saves you fridge space or the need to remember about leftovers too.
It is so easy to make I wanted to share my recipe — both the gluten free version and the regular version. Once you have the basic Cream-anything soup base mix, it’s easy to change it up with different additions. I’ve added some tips below, so keep reading.
Master Cream of Anything Dry Soup Mix
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A Cream Soup Base pace
Description
A master cream of anything soup base to make your own cream soups easily and swiftly.
Ingredients
- 1 cup skim milk powder
- 1 1/2 cups flour or gluten-free flour blend
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons bullion powder (See below)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
Instructions
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together to blend.
- Add any additions (see below).
- Package in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid.
To use:
Add 1/2 cup of the mix to a saucepan with 2 cups of water. For more flavor you can brown some butter and a bit of cornstarch into a roux before adding the half cup of dried cream soup base and the water.
Simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture becomes bubbly and thickens, about 5 minutes.
Serve. OR use in your recipe in the place of one can of cream soup.
To make a single serving, use 1/4 cup mix to 1 cup of water.
- 1 cup skim milk powder
- 1 1/2 cups flour or gluten-free flour blend
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons bullion powder (See below)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
Directions:
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk them together to blend.
- Add any additions (see below).
- Package in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid.
To use:
Add 1/2 cup of the mix to a saucepan with 2 cups of water. For more flavor you can brown some butter and a bit of cornstarch into a roux before adding the half cup of dried cream soup base and the water.
Simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture becomes bubbly and thickens, about 5 minutes.
Serve. OR use in your recipe in the place of one can of cream soup.
To make a single serving, use 1/4 cup mix to 1 cup of water.
If you want an extra creamy texture in your soup, sub in 1/4 – 1/2 cup milk, cream, or even heavy cream for part of the water when heating up your cream soup base. Just us a small saucepan with a heavy bottom, to help prevent the milk ingredients from scorching.
Note: This cream soup base is dairy heavy, if you want a dairy-free option, you’ll need to create a roux and add your preferred, plain, non-dairy milk, spices, and add ins, to make a fresh pot of soup each time.
Now the fun part:
Add one of the following to the basic cream soup dry mix to make your favorite dried cream soup blends, before you put the dry mix in the jar.
- For Cream of Mushroom Soup: Add 1/4 – 1/2 cup dried mushroom pieces, coarsely powder to mix in well.
- For Cream of Chicken Soup: Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup freeze dried chicken pieces, and garlic powder to taste.
- For Cream of Celery Soup: Add 2 tablespoon dehydrated celery pieces and leaves, and a tablespoon parsley.
- For Creamy tomato soup: Add 1/2 cup dehydrated tomato powder, which you can make yourself from fresh tomatoes during tomato season.
- For Cream of Potato Soup: Add 1/2 cup instant mash potatoes
- For Pumpkin Bisque: Add 1/2 cup dehydrated pumpkin powder, plus 2 tablespoons garam masala spice blend
- For Creamy Cheese soup: Add 1/2 cup cheese powder (Blend freeze dried cheese with 1 tablespoon tapioca starch to make the powdered cheese)
- For Cream of Broccoli soup: Add 1/4 cup cheese powder (see above) and 1/4 cup dehydrated and chopped broccoli.
I created 6 quart jars of the dry soup mix over the weekend: 2 each of Cream of Mushroom; Creamy cheese, and Stroganoff (I used freeze dried plain yogurt in place of the skim milk in this recipe to make the stroganoff base, and added 1/4 cup dried mushroom pieces) That’s the equivalent of 48 cans of soup. Isn’t that fun! And best of all, it just took a few hours to do. It’s faster even than home canning broth or soup!
The shelf life of the dried cream soup base is about one year, if kept in a cool, dark environment and with semi-sealed glass containers.
Making the bullion powder from scratch
You could use chicken bullion, beef bullion, or vegetable bullion in this recipe. If you don’t use dry bullion you could substitute liquid chicken broth or another broth for the water content when hydrating and mixing the cream soup.
You can make your own vegetable bullion using a dehydrator. If you have a dehydrator at home you can use it to dehydrate your garden odds and ends, as the fall progresses. Green onion tops, celery leaves, carrot tops, make a delicious bullion base when dried, powdered, and combined with nutritional yeast and salt. (1 1/2 cups dried, powdered veggies, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons sea salt — whisk together until blended and you have your bullion base.) Hydrate just your vegetable blend with water and you’ll have a basic vegetable broth too.
You can buy freeze dried cheese powder, and freeze dried chicken pieces or make your own (if you have a freeze dryer). Or skip the dried cheese and chicken and use a can of chicken when assembling the soup, or leftovers from another day’s dinner to replace that can of cream of chicken soup. You can also dissolve fresh cheese into the cream soup base while it’s coming to a boil, instead of using freeze dried cheese powders.
I hope this recipe is helpful. It was a game changer for me, in the 1990s when we were a young family, with 3 children, struggling to make ends meet. I could mix up just enough cream soup to fill in a casserole, or enough for several freezer casseroles.
Back to You:
What are your favorite homemade cream soups? Do you prefer homemade cream of chicken soup? or maybe cream of broccoli? One of my other favorites is a combo cream soup, combining the cream of broccoli mix with the cream of potato and add some extra cheese. It’s even a win with the grandkids.
Of course, you can always enjoy grandma’s chicken soup instead or a turkey soup too.
The instructions to use 1/2 cup of the mix to 2 cups of water – is this equivalent to a can of condensed/undiluted soup, like Campbells? or a can of ready-to-eat soup like Pacific?
The 1/2 cup of the dried mix is the equivalent to one can of condensed soup. Once diluted with water it is ready-to-eat.