DIY Kanned Cream of Mushroom Soup for Dummies

Makes 4-5 cups (about 4 "cans" of soup). Recipe can be halved easily.

  • 4 tablespoons butter

  • 4 tablespoons flour

  • 2 shallots, minced

  • 2 cups stock (vegetable, chicken, beef, lamb, seafood, whatever)

  • 2 tablespoons powdered dried mushrooms

  • a healthy dash of Worcestershire Sauce (vegetarian if you prefer)

  • 1/2 cup sherry, sweet white wine, marsala cooking wine, vermouth, or whatever you have open

  • salt and pepper to taste

  • 1 cup heavy cream

  • Optional: Dried or fresh thyme

Melt (but don't burn) butter in a saucepan, and whisk in flour until you have a paste. Stir in minced shallots and cook over low heat until soft. If the mix starts to stick to the pan or gets too thick to stir, add a splash of the stock you're about to use.

Add 2 cups stock and whisk again to make sure there are no lumps. Stir in dried mushroom powder, Worcestershire, and wine, and add salt and pepper to taste. (Italian or French seasoning salt works well if you have it.) If you have a couple tablespoons of fresh thyme or a couple shakes of dried, add that too.

Simmer until mushrooms are incorporated, stirring occasionally. 

Add cream, turn up the heat and scald for two seconds.

Cool and serve, stirring in milk or stock to thin the soup if you like.

Notes:

  1. If you can't find powdered mushrooms in a store, make your own. They're great for seasoning other dishes, too. Buy dried mushrooms and use a food processor to turn them into a powder.

  2. The richer your stock, the richer your soup. U made stock from a lamb bone recently and it made a heck of a soup.

  3. You can use milk instead of cream, which will result in a thinner, but still delicious, soup.

  4. As you may have guessed, you can skip the mushrooms and make this a cream-of-whatever's-in-your-broth soup. You can also add steamed and pureed broccoli, asparagus, or celery to make it whatever kind of cream soup you like.