I woke up the day I was leaving my conference, freezing my proverbial buns off, and had a moment of glee—after I stopped my teeth chattering. It’s soup season, baby!
I love soup and I love it to the point where my husband keeps saying to me, “A man cannot live on soup alone.” Yeah, but… that’s what the fresh baked bread is for. To go WITH the soup. Duh. But apparently, my son is inheriting dad’s bad attitude towards soup.
It’s too healthy and delicious, apparently.
Fine, my house of haters. More for me. I am perfectly happy making soup JUST for me, and divvying it up into little bowls which I stack neatly into the fridge and consume every day for the next week. Because then I just grab, microwave, and I’m G2G. Better, since I’m making just for me, I get to expand my repertoire. When I have to make soup for all of us, creamy soups automatically get banned on account of my son’s dairy allergy.
I was hanging out with fellow foodie Sarah Kertcher (who LOVES soup as much as I do) at the blogger conference I just got home from, and we were both grumping about soups we were being served that were too salty for our tastes (always with the perils of scratch foodies dining out… why salt good stuff to death when there’s so many other delicious flavour things to add to soup, like garlic and herbs?). She had a too-salty cream of mushroom soup at the restaurant we went out to, and boy, didn’t that just go through my mind when I decided to make my own cream of mushroom soup on Sunday when I got home. I made mine with low-sodium chicken stock and added only a small pinch of salt afterwards.
Didn’t need it; don’t miss it.
Sometimes I thicken such creamy soups and creamy sauces with roux, which is butter, flour and milk. It’s a bit painstaking and can take practice to get the mix right. If you’re less experienced at the stovetop, there’s a kitchen hack you can use without having to worry about scorching, burning, or getting a gritty/floury taste in your dinner dishes:
Carnation® Evaporated Milk.
Like my mom, I’ve used Carnation Evaporated Milk for years—decades, honestly—but mostly I was in the habit of using it in desserts because the reduced water content is excellent for getting a smooth and creamy texture in things like fudge and homemade candy bar squares. Also, like regular milk, it comes in the variety of Carnation Regular, 2%, and Fat Free Evaporated Milk giving you some control over extra calories for your waistline’s sake. But it’s a versatile product, and it can do way more than just pumpkin pie or fudge.
- 1 tbsp Crisco® Vegetable or Canola Oil
- 3 leeks, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme or (1 tsp dried)
- 2 lbs sliced button or cremini mushrooms
- 4 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
- 1 can Carnation® Regular or 2% Evaporated Milk
- salt to taste
- Heat oil on medium heat in a large ( 4L/16 cup) pot.
- Cook leeks, garlic and thyme for 5 minutes, until wilted.
- Add mushrooms, cook on medium heat for 5-7 minutes until mushrooms have cooked down. Add stock, bring to a boil, cover, lower heat and cook for 20 minutes.
- Puree in blender. Return to pot. Stir in can of Carnation® and heat soup.
- Taste and adjust salt if necessary.
Like this cream of mushroom soup, Carnation has a lot of easy recipes for creamy soups for this fall, plus other great recipes for fast dinners and sauces using Carnation Evaporated Milk. Check out their website and warm your bellies by making your favourite soups for family and friends!
PS – Hey Sarah, I’ve got lots of Cream of Mushroom soup if you want to fly back east. You don’t really want to hang out in BC anyway, do you? 😉
Although this post has been generously sponsored by Smucker Foods of Canada Corp. and they sent me free product samples, the opinions and language are all my own, and in no way do they reflect Smucker Foods of Canada Corp.
I used to make an AWESOME roux… but just can’t get it right since I’ve started using gluten-free flour. It’s always way too thick or way too thin. I am DEFINITELY going to need to remember to use evaporated milk. That is GENIUS.