Cooking: Cream of Celery Soup

Another "cream of" soup: Cream of Celery

Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup ingredients: Water, Celery, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Cottonseed, Canola and/or Soybean), Modified Food Starch, Wheat Flour, Cream (Milk), Contains Less than 2% of: Salt, Dried Whey (Milk), Margarine (Corn, Cottonseed, Canola and/or Soybean Oil, Water, Beta Carotene for Color), Monosodium Glutamate (aka: MSG), Soy Protein Concentrate, Yeast Extract, Flavoring.

My recipe:
6-8 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups heavy cream
1 stick butter
3 T flour
3-4 cloves garlic
salt & pepper, to taste
parsley, to taste

(not pictured: butter, parsley)

Saute celery, onion, and garlic in 2 T butter.

Remove the pan contents into a bowl.

Melt the remaining butter in the pan. Add flour and combine. Slowly add cream, 1/4 cup at a time, whisking to incorporate each time.

Cook for 5-10 minutes until thick and bubbly. Add back in the celery and onion mixture.

 Season with parsley, salt, and pepper.

Use (or freeze) as-is as a substitute for condensed cream of celery soup, or add some milk and heat to eat is as a stand-alone soup.

This recipe makes the equivalent of about 2 cans of cream of celery soup.

Cooking: Cream of Mushroom Soup

Cream of Mushroom Soup: A popular ingredient in many recipes.

Now for the scary stuff, the ingredient list!

Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup: water, mushrooms, vegetable oil (corn, cottonseed, canola, and/or soybean), modified food starch, wheat flour, salt, cream (milk), dried whey (milk), monosodium glutamate (aka: MSG), soy protein concentrate, yeast extract, spice extract, dehydrated garlic

Okay, so it's not the worst ingredient list I've seen, but not the best either. Especially since I personally try to avoid soy whenever possible, as well as MSG.

So in my shift to eating a more natural diet, I made my own "Cream of Mushroom Soup".

Ingredients: Mushrooms, heavy cream, butter, onion,
garlic, flour, heavy cream, salt & pepper.

Start by chopping the onion and sauteing in 2 T of butter.

Add sliced mushrooms and 3-4 cloves of minced garlic.

Once the mushrooms have cooked down a bit, move the pan contents to a bowl and set aside.

To the pan, add remaining butter and 3 T flour. Whisk together.

Add 2 cups of heavy cream, about 1/4 cup at a time, whisking constantly until it is fully incorporated before adding more. Bring to a thick bubbly consistency. Cook 5-10 minutes until thick and bubbly.

Add back in the onion, mushroom, garlic mixture that was set aside earlier. Add salt & pepper to-taste.

And the finished product: Cream of mushroom soup both tastier and healthier than Campbell's!

Use (or freeze) as-is as a substitute for condensed cream of mushroom soup, or add some milk and heat to eat is as a stand-alone soup.

This recipe makes about the equivalent of 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup.