Creamed soups

When I was a teenage girl, I wrote about subjects that inspired me: patriotism, nature conservation, love. Now, since this is writing from a mom's point of view, I am writing about... creamed soups.

Yes, creamed soups. I hate them. I don't use them anymore in my cooking. After years of being a dutiful follower of recipes, adding a can of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup to EVERY casserole and assorted other gravies, soups and sauces, I came to a realization. I don't like creamed soups. I especially don't like paying for creamed soups. When they used to cost 50 cents a can, maybe I could justify it. But now I'm lucky to find them on sale for 88 cents, and some cost up to $1.50. Why add that extra cost to my grocery budget?

Creamed soups aren't healthy for you, either. They have a lot of preservatives, salt, and processed ingredients. They come out of the can as a gray, quivering mass of gelatinous, mutated milk. Then you're supposed to mush it all up and mix it with your other fresh ingredients, and this makes a casserole... really? Plus a lot of recipes I have read (especially from the church cookbooks) call for up to FOUR cans of creamed soups per dish! And some even add sour cream on top of that! That's not a casserole, that's a chicken and celery smoothie. Yuck.

My eye-opening came at the cost of my dear husband. As a young bride I found I had very few recipes to choose from. I went home and copied out of my family cookbook a few recipes... all casseroles... all using creamed soups. Well, my husband is allergic to milk. He has become more lactose tolerant as the years have passed (he loves pizza with mozzarella cheese), but he really disliked anything creamed-soupy. After a few months of dutifully praising dinner, he finally found a nice way of asking me to reduce the creaminess. When my daughter was born seven years later, also with milk allergies, I had to leave out the milk ingredients altogether. (Alas! farewell to cheese, my wonderful cheese...)

Now, lest you think I have become a casserole hater, I have not. I love casseroles--in fact, I believe I am a casserole pro. My casseroles taste far better than my cookies (I've just about given up baking altogether). But cooking a nice dinner with a mix of meat/veggie/starch is my specialty.

So this is how I make casserole without creamed soups. First, for a hamburger-based casserole, such as Tater Tot Casserole: Brown your ground beef in the frying pan, with onion, salt and pepper. Drain the grease. Then sprinkle two tablespoons of flour over your ground beef and mix it in until it disappears. Now add a cup of water and a tablespoon of beef bouillon granules (or use canned beef stock, or beef soup base and water). Mix into your beef/flour and stir frequently. It will thicken up, with nary a flour lump to be found, and... voila! Gravy instead of creamed soup. Add other casserole ingredients and bake.

For chicken casseroles, such as Chicken Divan, Viva la Chicken,  Chicken Noodle Casserole, etc. my process is similar. Except I never have precooked, chopped chicken ready ahead of time. You can easily make it with chicken breasts or thighs cooked in a slow cooker, then deboned, and use the broth for your soup--if you are organized enough to think 8 hours ahead of dinner time. I used to be that organized.... But now I simply put two frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts in two cups of water in my frying pan. I cover it and poach the chicken for about 12 minutes. I add onion and garlic powder while it's cooking. Then I remove the chicken and chop it up. Meanwhile, I take the broth remaining in the pan and add your typical flour/water or cornstarch/water mixture used for gravy. I add chicken soup base or chicken bouillon, put my chicken chunks back in, and there you have it... a base for your chicken casserole that doesn't require creamed soup! If you really want that milk/cream color (for some reason, if it looks white it seems to taste better), you can replace a 1/2 cup of water with milk. It will look creamy but will leave out a lot of the calories, and definitely all the preservatives and salt, of canned creamed soups.

So here's to a creamed-soup-free future... may your days in the kitchen be joyous!



(Now I hope I don't get any hate mail from the Campbell's Soup company.)