Mock Condensed Soup

There are a lot of really homey dishes like chicken pot pie, and cheesy broccoli rice casserole and hundreds more that are made super creamy and delicious from the addition of a can or two of the infamous condensed cream of “fill in the blank” soup.

There’s no way around it, those casseroles and crock-pot meals taste good, really, really good.  They’re creamy, salty, gooey, and super quick to make.  Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of super processed foods.  I think there is definitely a time and a place for them (i.e. college, camping, PMS, the zombie Apocalypse – you get my drift).  But now that I’m a mom and am raising tiny humans I try to keep as much junk out of my families meals as I can.  So I make my own “Mock Condensed Soups” to add to recipes to make quick, delicious family friendly meals I can feel good about.

As a disclaimer, I’m not posting this to be preachy by any means.  You can absolutely use canned condensed soups in any of my recipes and they will turn out just fine.  I have had so many people ask my how I make my own “Mock Soup” that I figured a blog post was in order.  So without further adieu…

Necessities:

3 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

1 1/2 Tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Organic Chicken Base*(more on this stuff later)

Method:

In a medium saucepan melt 3 Tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Next, sprinkle in 3 Tablespoons of flour and begin to whisk the mixture until the flour is fully incorporated.  It should look like the picture below and will start to bubble, make sure to keep whisking it and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.

Next add in 2 cups of milk and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Better than Bouillon* and whisk away.  The mixture might look like it’s separating at first, but just keep the heat cranked up to high and continue to whisk.

When it comes to a full boil it will start to thicken.  Keep it at a boil for 1 minute while whisking and then remove from heat and allow to cool.  Your “sauce” should thicken even more as it cools and should be pretty close to the consistency of a condensed soup.  As you can see it is fairly thick and is heavily coating a wooden spoon.

I have been known to make a quadruple batch of this and then freeze in into 4, 2 cup Ziploc bags to have ready whenever I need to throw together a casserole last minute.

Better than Bouillon is really awesome stuff!  I highly recommend you try it out.  Of all the bouillons available out there, the organic line of this product is one of the cleanest and best tasting that I have found.  It comes in a variety of flavor bases so if, for example, you are vegetarian you can substitute the vegetable base in my mock condensed soup recipe.

Check back this weekend to see how I use this mock soup in a family friendly casserole with some hidden veggies 😉