Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup
ByJust in case you lose count while reading the following sentence, I used the word ”cream” or “creamy” six times, because apparently I like these words and like to overuse them. And also because once I realized I was doing it, I exaggerated on purpose:
When I shared my Creamy Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe, I told you that I don’t usually make cream soups to replace the canned cream soups called for in many creamy recipes, but instead substitute straight cream to make the dish creamy.
(Someone give me a synonym for “creamy” to enhance my future sentence writing creativity.)
However, I have a great recipe for an easy one dish meat and potato meal that I hadn’t made for years because I wasn’t sure how to make it without the cream of mushroom soup. For this, straight cream just wouldn’t cut it. I need to make the soup.
Therefore, for all one of my recipes that need cream of mushroom soup, here is how I make it:
Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
3 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup organic corn starch or arrowroot powder
4 cups milk, divided
1 teaspoon sea salt
pepper to taste
Begin by sauteing mushrooms and butter until mushrooms are tender.
In the meantime, shake the cornstarch or arrowroot powder in a jar with 1 1/2 cups of milk. You probably could have figured out how to do this step without a picture, but when have I ever missed a chance to take a great photo of a jar?
Ooh, Ahh
Use a whisk to mix the milk mixture into the sauteed mushrooms, stirring constantly at medium heat. Slowly add remaining milk, salt and pepper. Stir with a whisk until smooth and thick.
This recipe will make around three cans worth of cream soup. I haven’t done it before, but I would imagine you could substitute celery for the mushrooms to make cream of celery soup instead. If you have extra soup that you don’t need, this can be frozen.
This recipe tastes great in my One Dish Meat and Potato Casserole!
What recipes do you make that require cream of mushroom soup?
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Was wondering if anyone has tried to pressure can this recipe? At, say, 75 minutes and 10 lbs for pints, 95 minutes and 10 lbs for quarts? I’m thinking about trying it, maybe with one or two pints to see how it goes.
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Joyce Reply:
August 28th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
If you try this, would you let us know how it works out? I haven’t had very good luck trying to can milk or cream-based things in the past, and I would be interested to know if you have any success.
Thanks!
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Rhonda Reply:
September 1st, 2012 at 9:22 am
on another website i go to regularly has instructions for pressure canning cream of mushroom soupl
here is the link
http://chickensintheroad.com/forum/just-recipes/cream-of-mushroom-soup/
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Joyce Reply:
September 1st, 2012 at 11:36 am
I love her blog! I’m surprised I haven’t seen that before. Note — she doesn’t add the milk when pressure canning, but when she opens the jar. That makes total sense.
Thanks for the link!
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Does this make “condensed” soup? I use cream of something soups in many recipes, but I never dilute them first.
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Laura Reply:
August 20th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Mmm, good question. It’s been a long time since I’ve used canned soup. I’d say this is thinner than what would come out of a can, but should work the same in most recipes.
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Genius! Thank you for sharing!
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I found this recipe for Cream of something soup and it good. It’s a mix you can keep in the freezer.
http://1orangegiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/07/anything-you-wanna-call-it-casserole.html?showComment=1310864846151#c3489139395376988271
and here’s one for homemade condensed tomato soup. This one is awesome!
http://premeditatedleftovers.com/substitute-for-condensed-tomato-soup/
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Hi Laura, I found this recipe from Stacy Makes Cents. I made it without the mushrooms and put it in the crockpot with the cubed venison. I think it will work just fine! Thanks for sharing! Blessings from Bama!
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Better late than never: a good synonym for “creamy” might be “velvety” or possibly “luscious”!!
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Hi, Laura! I made this recipe yesterday and tossed it in the crockpot with 3 T. of your onion soup mix and a frozen roast. It cooked on low for 8 hours and it was delicious! The cream soup turned into a wonderful gravy for the roast. Thanks for your recipes!
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I love this idea. Can’t stand all the ?@#&% ingredients in canned soup. The list for this basic recipe is endless like chowder for instance.
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To save even more money, could you use milk made from powdered milk? Has anyone tried that?
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Laura Reply:
January 27th, 2013 at 2:03 pm
I believe that would work in this recipe, but I prefer the health qualities of actual milk and typically avoid powdered milk. :)
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Don’t like mushrooms but I poked around on other sites and it looks like you could dice celery instead of mushrooms or use a little chicken broth instead of all milk perhaps. I put in a teaspoon-ish of seasoning (a mix from Trader Joe’s called 21 season salute). It was delish with porkchops in the crockpot on high for 4 hours (which Lori told me about doing). Used 2/3 of what I made and put the other 1/3 in the freezer.
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I was wondering if you could use whipping cream instead of the milk?
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Laura Reply:
January 28th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Should work just fine!
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If you freeze this, do you have to let it cool completely? I have never froze anything with milk.
Thank you for your time.
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at 12:59 pm
Yes! Let it cool completely. :)
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Why did my soup turn out sticky, like gak? I used arrowroot…it was like one big blob. When I cooked it with meat, I added more milk and that seemed to help. Ideas???
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Laura Reply:
April 8th, 2013 at 5:46 pm
Oh shucks, sometimes arrowroot powder causes that. Glad adding extra milk seemed to help!
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I am lactose and gluten free :( Do you think this would work with lactose free milk? Have you heard of anyone trying it?
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Laura Reply:
April 23rd, 2013 at 8:43 pm
I haven’t tried it, but I would imagine it would work. :)
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This will work nicely for Swedish Meatballs!
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Think i could do half the milk for “condensed” and to save on freezer space?
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