Gluten-Free Condensed Mushroom Soup Recipe

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)

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!