Saving $ Saturday - make it at home

For years I have been making my own cream of mushroom soup at home. It is actually quite easy and very economical. You only need a few things to get started - mushrooms and onions.

To begin the process I use a mini chopper to chop both the onions and mushrooms into very fine pieces. You do not need a mini chopper a food processor would work or even just your own kitchen knife. I do the mushrooms and onions seperately and mix them after.

I place about 3 tablespoons of each in a small plastic bag and throw it into the freezer.‍ ‍The other day I bought a container of mushrooms for a little under $2 at the grocery and I had a bag of onions already at home. I began a chopping session. I was able to get 6 baggies from the mushrooms and one onion. Each bag makes a soup sized can of cream of mushroom soup.

When I need cream of mushroom I simply take a baggie out of the freezer and place it in a small saucepan with ¼ cup butter. I melted the butter over a low heat. Once the butter is melted I add ¼ cup flour and about ¾ cup of whole milk. I whisk that all together over low heat. The mixture will thicken and before you know it you have cream of mushroom. You can even eat it straight from the pot as a cream soup course, but works great in any casseroles you might want to make.

You can take this basic recipe and make it vegetarian, gluten free and even use dairy substitutes for the butter and milk. It still works and it tastes so much better than anything you can purchase in a can. I also control the salt level by using unsalted butter. The canned version is usually very high in sodium.

Not only it is healthier but costs per “can” is WAY lower than buying 6 cans of cream of anything soup.