Homemade Cream of whatever soup

SO there are so many recipes out there that use the cream of whatever condensed soup mix and as convenient as it is to just pop open a can it's not that great for ya. Preservatives alone are yuck, then lets add the fact that its been sitting in a can for a mysterious amount of time slowly adding aluminum to your soup and lets face it more often then not your cream of whatever is very often missing much of that whatever thats suppose to be the main ingredient. SO make it yourself! I promise its super easy AND make it in a big batch and freeze and now you still have the convenience of the can version...well except it taste a million times better and is free of all the yuck!

So I got this recipe from here. I like how she gives you different alternatives for vegans, lactose free, and gluten free which is fun if you need it. She only does one batch at a time I quadruple it and tweak it a little and i get about 6 pint jars out of it to freeze.

So far I have made quadruple batches of cream of chicken, celery, and mushroom.  Today I will show mushroom but you can substitute anything you want, just take out the mushroom and add that same amount of whatever else.

Ingredients:
1-2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves of garlic minced
2 small onions, diced
2 cups main ingredient, diced
1 cup or 2 sticks of organic salt-free butter
1 cup of flour
4 cups organic milk
3 cups chicken stock (low sodium)
Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1: is finding your yummy whatevers! I just used button mushrooms for this. DON'T run them under water that will make them tuff, just get a wet clean cloth and brush off any dirt very gently, remove the stems, and dice finely. while your pot is heating up, also dice the onions and mince the garlic.

Step 2: sauté the onions and mushrooms in the olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5-8 minutes till the onions are translucent. Then add the garlic and sauté for another 2-5mins. Don't burn the garlic it will turn bitter. Once they are all cooked to yumminess remove from pot. (if the mushrooms let out a little juice thats ok keep that too, it will add to the yummy flavor)

Step 3: Now you are going to make a ROUX (our fancy word for the day) which basically is the base of a sauce. First melt the butter. Then add the flour. depending on what type of roux you are making will determine how long you cook the flour. (For example if you are making a jumbo you want to cook it pretty dark) For this recipe we want a white sauce so we are not going to cook it too long, maybe 5mins tops. you want it to be a slight blonde color.

Step 4: I like to whisk when I am mixing my four and butter, I think it works better then a spoon, and I use a plastic one so I'm not scraping the bottom of my pot (and then getting the scrapings into my food). This is about the color you are looking for. Now you are going to SLOWLY, AND SERIOUSLY PEOPLE I MEAN SLOWLY, add in the broth. Like a 1/4 cup at a time while stirring and then keep stirring till its all mixed in. It's going to clump into a ball pretty instantly, don't panic! If you panic and pour it all in too fast you will get a very gross clumpy soup. Just take it one 1/4 cup at a time and mix well before each addition to make sure its all incorporated. Once the broth is in add the milk by the same process. once you got that, add back in your main ingredient and simmer for about 10-15mins. Then add salt and pepper to taste

Then you end with this beauty! Now there are several ways to store it. I prefer the pints jars, leaving space at the top. let it cool in the fridge over night then freeze for up to 3 months. You can also put them in zip lock bags instead and follow the same process. You can also put them in the fridge for up to a week if you plan to use it right away. DO NOT CAN! There have been some alterations to the recipe so that you can 'can' it, such as using evaporated milk. I don't like to can milk products though, even with a pressure cooker I just don't recommend it.

When its time to use them, if your on top of it, take it out and put it in the fridge the night before or, if you are not on top of it like me, take it out of the freezer about an hour before dinner and put the jar in a warm water bath to loosen up the soup. Now use it like a normal cream of whatever can of soup!