I found this recipe by accident really. I was researching what condensed soups really are (in order to have a starting point for improving the condensed soup recipes that I had used in the past), and a Google Search took me to a YouTube video showing Crystal Godfrey of Everyday Food Storage (see the video below) doing a cooking demonstration for homemade condensed soups using Magic Mix. I was really intrigued, especially after she mentioned some of the key points of condensed soups that I had already read about:
Condensed soups are not just really thick soups (via a roux, which is the theory I had been going off for several years) but rather a soup “concentrate” where most of the liquid has been “removed,” which is why canned condensed soups require adding water or milk to reconstitute them. Check this out from Wisegeek.com:
Condensed soup is soup which is cooked with a minimum of water, so that it forms a thick stock which almost resembles a sauce. To use condensed soup, consumers add water or cream to the highly concentrated soup and heat it…
The product is extremely useful, especially in disaster kits.
See that? Disaster kits? This made me feel like Crystal Godfrey of Everyday Food Storage really knew what she was talking about since she runs a website on Emergency Food Storage! 🙂 I at least believed it enough to give it a shot.
I made a few GF tweaks, and changed the spices up to suit my tastes.
It worked. Really Really Well!
The following is my version of Crystal’s recipe.
Gluten-Free Condensed Mushroom Soup
1 cup Gluten-Free Magic Mix
3/4 cup Mushroom Liquid (I use the liquid from the can of mushrooms and since it is not quite 3/4 cups worth, I top it off with Pacific Foods Mushroom Broth, click the link for nutritional info. and GF status)
1/4 tsp. Onion Powder
1/8 tsp. Kitchen Bouquet (optional, this is only used for “browning.” See below for more info on Kitchen Bouquet)
1 Tbs. of the canned Mushrooms, chopped (more or less to suit your taste and texture preferences)
- Add everything except the chopped mushrooms in a sauce pan.
- Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens (this goes VERY fast, so do not walk away)
- Fold in chopped mushrooms.
Use one recipe of this as a substitute for 1 can of the canned Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup in your recipes. So if your recipe calls for 2 cans of Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup, double this recipe.
Add Magic Mix and onion powder to saucepan.
Add 3/4 cup combined mushroom liquid (juice and broth).
After the soup thickens, fold in 1 Tbs. chopped mushrooms.
Homemade Gluten-Free Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup with Kitchen Bouquet added (this is an older photo).
Just for Fun:
Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup. The mushrooms really aren't much at all, more like mushroom flakes.
More on Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup:
As Sam would say: "GLUTEN!"
I put this on here because whenever I would look for a photo of the ingredients on GOOGLE Images, I could never find one!
At my local grocery store, Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup is currently $1.09.
I am going to start compiling information on all the ingredients used in the GF version of condensed cream of mushroom soup and will eventually price it out to see the difference (just because I am curious).
Here is some extra information on the ingredients I used in the recipe above. I will include photos of the products because I have found it extremely helpful when compiling grocery lists for Mike 😀 :
Pacific Foods Organic Mushroom Broth:
Kitchen Bouquet (I had actually never heard of this prior to watching Crystal’s video. Click here for some interesting tidbits on Kitchen Bouquet.).
I contacted the company that makes Kitchen Bouquet back in September, 2009 and as of then it was gluten-free (see the email below). I do not use this product anymore, so I would highly recommend contacting them again for an update on the gluten-free status before you use it. The phone number on the bottle is: 1.800.537.2823
September 14, 2009
Heidi Kelly
Reference Number: 5919336
Dear Heidi,
Thank you for contacting us about our Kitchen Bouquet product.
We would like to inform you that the product in which you are inquiring about is gluten free.
Again, thank you for contacting us.
Sincerely,Tracy Wise
Consumer Response Representative
Consumer Services
Lastly, I want to offer some tips for preserving unused ingredients like the canned mushrooms and mushroom broth. Since I only use 1 Tbs. of the mushrooms in the recipe, I put the leftover chopped mushrooms in ice cube trays, cover them in water then freeze until solid. Once frozen, I remove them from the trays and store in a Ziploc Freezer Bag. I do the same thing with the leftover Mushroom Broth. When I use canned mushrooms for other things (or Sam wants to snack on them, OYE!), instead of discarding the mushroom juice, I freeze it in cubes for future use.
Be sure to cover the mushrooms completely with water before freezing...
Or the exposed mushrooms will get freezer burn (see lower left corner of the photo) and become even more rubbery than they are when you first open the can. The nice thing about storing your leftover mushrooms this way is that when you are going to make your next batch of condensed cream of mushroom soup, just remove 1 cube, thaw at room temperature and drain before adding to your soup!
I store all components in separate freezer bags, it makes future condensed soup making *almost* as fast as opening a can.
Mushroom Broth Cubes
Uh, Sam wrote that? 🙂 I Didn't realize at the time that my freezer bag would be making a future public appearance or I would have used my label maker!
I just saw this post on Everyday Food Storage about one of the hottest upcoming trends this year…home canning! Who’da thunk it in 2010?! Crystal has a video clip on the post (I am assuming from a local news channel) about what to do now in order to prepare for the upcoming gardening season (including stocking up on canning supplies). The grapes and fruit trees we ordered from Trees of Antiquity will be arriving in a few weeks. If we can manage to keep them alive, it will be fun to make some preserves. I have only made and preserved jam twice (pretty easy) so I still have a lot to learn in the home canning department. It would be very cool to learn how to can low-acid foods like condensed cream of mushroom soup! I realize that means I need to get over the fear of my pressure-cooker and actually open the box! 🙂
Filed under: Recipes, Soups/Salads | Tagged: Condensed Mushroom Soup Recipe, gluten free |
Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom 
[…] Are you missing Cream of Mushroom Soup in your recipes? Heidi has come up with a simple GF way to make it yourself! Make sure to check out her post! […]
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Heidi, thank you so much for the cream soup recipes. That is wonderful. No we didn’t make it to the potluck, we have been having a lot of snow this year (wonderful) and though not technically snowed in we have been staying home. Thank you again.
Beverly,
You are welcome, please let me know what you think of the soup, I would love to hear what you use it in!
I take it you reside out of the Albuquerque metro area? Rio Rancho is getting a nice amount of snow today (finally!)
All the best and I look forward to hopefully meeting someday 🙂
I currently use a powder mix. I’m very interested in comparing this to the one I currently use? And to further see how cooking with this in recipes works out? I love love love the detail you put into your posts. Like the mushroom frozen bits. I try not to use store canned products at all so if Im going to other sautéing some fresh, I love this frozen bits idea.
Hi Lisa!
I am glad you like the details, I have been wondering if it was TOO MUCH detail! Just a few months ago I reformatted the way I write the recipes based on how I wish other blog recipes would be written sometimes. When cooking GF, especially GF baked goods, they don’t always “look right” and I like to compare what I am cooking to the recipe I am following to see if I am even on the right path, LOL!
I am trying to weed out using canned products too. I have been on an interested “odyssey” ever since watching Food, Inc. a couple of months ago. Daring to take a peek behind the curtain at how foods are made has freaked me out a bit! 😉 Finding out that cans are lined with BPA and it leaches into the food is rather unsettling. I am going through the supplies I already have (big Costco shopper) and then I am going to start experimenting with fresh, organic mushrooms. We are in the process of planting our own garden and I really want to learn how to “can” my own produce, etc.
What I like about this recipe for condensed soup, is how authentic it tastes to what I remember Campbell’s condensed soups tasting like. The condensed soups I have made from this recipe have held up GREAT in everything I have used it in. I have made the condensed soup mix before and I have tried other GF condensed soup recipes too and they are either completely off the mark in the taste category or they break down during the cooking process and get very runny instead of creamy. I have also used Progresso’s Creamy Portabello Mushroom Soup and Health Valley’s version of mushroom soup. Progresso’s soup tastes great but is too runny, even when thickened with a starch. Health Valley’s soup, I just do not like at all. When I made Green Bean Casserole for the holidays this year with this recipe, it was the first time in 5 years it actually tasted like Green Bean Casserole!
Finding GF foods that remind me of the gluten foods I grew up on, has done so much for me in terms of accepting the gluten-free lifestyle! I used to cheat all the time in the beginning (5 years ago) because I couldn’t stand the GF foods that were available, so much so that I was willing to harm myself just to taste something good. 5 years later, I wouldn’t go back to the gluten filled world of food if my Dr. suddenly told me my celiac disease diagnosis was a mistake. It has been a crazy journey for sure but one that has been very rewarding.
Let me know how the recipe works out for you using fresh mushrooms! 🙂
[…] Anyway, I was on heightened celiac alert after Luke was born and on the advice of his pediatrician (based on the information at the time), we delayed introducing gluten to Luke until he was 1. Lots of commercial baby foods have gluten, so I started making my own baby food. That was the beginning of my “make my own” era! I got Jessica Seinfeld’s “Deceptively Delicious” cookbook and got to work. It was during this time that I actually picked up the tip to freeze purees in ice cub trays, and I still use that trick for my GF Condensed Soup components! […]
I LOVE the Magic Mix for Cream soups. They taste so much better than Campbells or any other and worth the little prep required……..THANKS Heidi for sharing that recipe.
Hi Nancy!
You really like it?? I haven’t had many comments with feedback yet, so it is nice to hear that I am not the only one who thinks it is GREAT!
Since you have been GF for many years Nancy, how would you rate this version compared to other GF condensed soup recipes? What all have you used it in?
Heidi, I tried this condensed mushroom soup the other day for a topping for our favorite meatloaf, and I like it a lot! Once I’d made the Gluten-Free Magic Mix, this was the first thing I wanted to try, and it was delicious! Previously I had used Progresso’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, which as I think you said somewhere is too liquid — it doesn’t top my meatloaf very well. Also I had used a recipe that didn’t have quite the same proportions of some things and none of the Kitchen Bouquet, and it didn’t taste as good as this does. (I’ve used Kitchen Bouquet for years — sometimes a dish just needs to look a little more browned to be appetizing, and Kitchen Bouquet makes the difference.)
Finding a way to make our old favorite meatloaf into a gluten-free version that my husband still liked but that I could eat was been a major issue after going GF. Once I got the meatloaf part acceptable, then I found the mushroom topping turned out to be awfully tricky!
Thanks for putting this together for us — it’ll definitely be used again on our meatloaf!
Question: Do you ever freeze those chopped mushrooms with mushroom broth on them instead of water? Do you think it would work to do that? (My freezer is going to start filling up with cubes of many things besides water — that’s such a good idea!)
Pat,
I’m so glad you liked it!! I almost fell over when I found the recipe, I think it is so close… quite possibly better that the gluteny canned variety! This soup was MUCH CREAMIER than any other GF version I have tried.
As for freezing the mushrooms in mushroom broth… heck yeah that would work! Can’t believe I didn’t think of it, I’m running out of freezer space too! Thanks for the tip! 🙂