Cream Soup Base

this soup was delicious and easy. it came out a little thick and salty so i added two more cups of milk and a cup of water. i also added potatoes, celery, and onions into it. but you should boil the veges first before putting them in. i didn't know so i just stuck in raw veges so i had to constantly stir while it softened up. i will definitely make it again.

Great for when you don't have that can of soup on hand. Plus I feel like I'm not getting all those artificial ingredients, preservatives, etc. in the can.

I made this for a group event and it was loved by all. I added the baked potatoes and bacon. I found I needed a lot more milk for a less thick soup. I used 1% milk and everyone still thought it was made with cream.

I love you!whoever you are who posted this! Lol. I had a hankerin for some asparagus soup and used this base with a can of asparagusneeded all the liquid tho-real thick! It was awesome! I can't believe I've been buying canned all these years! DUH!

Delicious and easy!!! I am living in Austria right now on a foreign exchange program, and I wanted to make a meal for my host family, and one of the ingredients was a can of cream of celery soup. Unfortunately I learned Austria doesnt have any canned soup! Luckily I found this wonderful recipe, and just added pureed celery. My dish turned out even more delicious than when I used the can soup. I would recommend this recipe to anybody, it is quick, simple, delicious, and amazingly versatile!!!

Thank you SO MUCH for this! I was ready to make PoppySeed Chicken and realized I was out of cream soup! I remembered seeing this recipe long ago--searched, and THERE IT WAS! I will never BUY cream soup again--this is SO MUCH BETTER!

This is a wonderful, versitile and quick recipe. I made broccoli and cheese with leftover cooked broccoli. It was delicious. I made it with vegetarian bouillons for my kids. They are picky and loved it.

A trick I learned at a gourmet restaraunt I worked at, Vodka. If you add a little vodka to your cream soups it adds a wonderful richness, like wine does to marinara sauce.

Wow, this was awesome. I usually use beef flavoring. I've used this as a sauce in Shepherd's pie and on pizza (Egg Breakfast Pizza from this site). It was awesome! It's good by itself too. Sometimes I'll add a veggie soup mix I get from the bulk spice aisle (it's just tiny dried veggies and some seasoning). Thanks for the great recipe!

This was delicious. I used 1% milk and it was very creamy and perfectly rich. I created a "Mexican" theme with the following: *1 can Rotel Mexican diced tomatoes w/ lime juice and cilantro (with liquid) *1/2 of an 8.75 oz can golden corn (drain before adding to soup) *1/4 of a 4 oz can Ortega diced jalapenos (more or less depending on how hot you prefer) *1 2.25 oz can sliced black olives (with liquid)

Very good and easy. Made cream of chicken noodle soup with this base and it was great.

This is just amazing. I've been using this for a couple of years now. I like the ratio here much better. This is my go to recipe for cream soups when recipes call for it. The only problem though is that this makes 2 cups, and a condensed soup can is only 1 1/4 cups. I managed to modify it to make exactly 1 1/4 cups and it does work just fine. Also I use sodium free bouillon so we have no salt in it whatsoever. In which case I disagree with Aneehs' assessment of it being too salty. Had she used sodium free, then it would have been fine AND the amount called for even with the salt is exactly correct. One cube per each cup of liquid is the proper amount. Either way, I use it all the time now and it only takes about 5 minutes or so. To make another short cut, I have made several batches of these and put them in the freezer. They reheat well enough. Sometimes (not always) the milk separates but when you taste it it's fine. It's just not company worthy or for eaters who have to have it look perfect. Anyway, many thanks to Nell for sharing this perfect no-fail recipe!

SPECTACULAR!!! To avoid lumps, I divided the milk, heating half of it with the butter, and mixing the other half with the flour. I then added the milk/flour mixture to the hot liquid.

This recipe is okay, but is much tastier if you saute finely diced celery, carrots and leek, before adding the flour to make the roux. I also add a little bit of crushed garlic with the flour so not to burn it. This allows you to omit the chicken stock, which can be full of nasty stuff too. If you do add the chicken stock, and do not have time to make your own, read labels carefully, they are not all created equally.

I use this rather than buying the canned cream soup for my Chicken Pot Pie, and I can actually pronounce the ingredients!

This is a great base for so many soups. My favorite; cut back on the milk a bit and add sauteed onions, a good stout beer and shredded gouda!

This is a great recipe to have on hand when you need a cream of ____ soup and don't have any on hand. I halved the recipe, which made about the same amount that a 10.5 oz. can of soup would contain. Thanks for sharing!

This is a great base that I have used for adding leftover vegetables or whatever I had on hand to it to "recycle" meals we wouldn't eat otherwise. ("Recycle" sounds so gross when talking about dinner!) I added my leftovers Cajun Chicken Pasta (also on AllRecipes) we weren't going to eat and made Cajun Chicken Noodle Soup. Possibilities are endless! :)

Halved the recipe. I used margarine (gasp! I know, but butter is expensive). I used cup of cooking cream diluted a but with water and the rest soy milk. Seasoned with garlic and onion powders along with the pepper. It came out a little too salty for us. I added a sachet of "Fish Tea" soup (it was lying at the pack of the cupboard begging to be used). I used this in "Martha's Cornbread Dressing" from AR. I would use this again as a base, but maybe only half a cube.

Amazingly great! I used "Better than Boullion" seafood paste when I bought this beautiful geoduck clam. (Think of a HUGE clam that has majorly out-grown its shell with a five-foot neck!) Made about three gallons of clam chowder (kid you not!) Well, it weighed over five pounds! Unfortunately, it still didn't last for more than a few days. I ended up having to quadruple the recipe, but it was perfect! My immersion hand blender pulverized any possible lumps. And I did brown my butter a bit prior to making the roux -- but we Slovaks will use brown butter in almost anything.

I was making broccoli casserole and realized I had no cream of chicken soup. Then I remembered this recipe. Wow! This is great. No need to buy the canned stuff anymore.

Made this today for our lunch today. Fantastic starter recipe. I made potato soup and I would recommend using real butter and letting it brown a little before adding the flour then saute a little onion and garlic before adding the milk. The base was a little thick but instead of adding additional milk I actually added some chicken stock from leftover chicken and noodles the day before. Everytime I added more liquid it would be 1/2C at a time with 1/2 cup stock then 1/2 cup milk. I also recommend seasoning your potato soup with a little basil and topping with cheddar and bacon...VERY GOOD! THANKS!

Very easy and tastes great with almost any vegatable!

I love this recipe. I used it twice today, once for a casserole and once for scalloped potatoes. It is so versatile.

Thank you so much for posting this! I can no longer eat anything with MSG in it due to health problems that it caused me so didn't know what I was going to do about my pot roast and my Broccoli and Rice Casserole that I always make (since the can stuff has MSG in it)! I made this, sauteed my mushrooms and problem solved and way better than the canned stuff. For those stating is was too thick, its suppose to be, its a cream base, although you can add more milk to make it the consistency you want it. Again Thanks so much you solved a big problem for me!!

We loved this. I made Cream Of Vegetable Soup. I boiled 8oz bag of frozen vegetable and while that was cooking I melted the butter and sauteed half of an onion chopped before adding the flour. After making base I added the Vegetables. Was very thick so I kept adding water from the vegetables until thick as I liked. I think next time I will try creammy onion or creammy garlic.

All I can say to this recipe is wow. I'm a beginner cook and before trying this I was a huge fan of eating soup out of cans. Now that I've made the real thing I'm hooked, and my family is hooked too. After making it everyone had second helpings. I cooked with Whole Wheat flour and added 2 and 1/2 cups of milk as well as two more tablespoons of butter. I also added mashed potatoes, onions, green peppers and broccolli. I'm telling you the end result of this soup base recipe puts even resturant quality soup to shame!

Love it, love it! The ONLY thing I did was use less flour. I made a wonderful potato and kielbasa soup with this base; onion and celery too!

This was excellent. I added a little thyme, 1 1/2 lbs fresh, lightly steamed asparagus, a bunch of sliced leeks, two small leftover baked potatoes (diced) and a large handful of torn baby spinach. It was pretty much whatever I could find in the fridge that *might* work. I added an extra cup of milk to stretch the soup a little further and added a tiny bit of cornstarch/water slurry to help thicken it back up and used a chicken soup base rather than granules or bouillon cubes. I served it with whole-grain grilled cheese sandwiches. The creaminess of the soup complimented the course texture of the sandwiches. It came together nicely. We'll definitely do this again and also will try it as a broccoli cheese soup. This a very versatile recipe and will remain in my rotation...especially as the weather cools down!

This soup is a great base for any creamed soup. Last night it was Potato Soup. YUMMY! One person had three bowls of yummy soup! I look forward to making cheese soup...maybe even beer cheese soup. Watch the balance between butter, flour and liquid to determine the thickness of the soup. Thank you for a great soup base.>

I made this soup using canned milk diluted 1:1 with water instead of regular milk. To the base I added the recommended cheese and steamed broccolli but the potato sounded great too so I added canned potatoes. I also tossed in some canned beef I had sitting in the pantry removing as much of the fat as possible. I thought this would be a good soup from all the reviews but I was wrong. It was AWESOME! My husband and kids at it like ravenous wolves. Definitely the best cream base soup I have ever tasted! This recipe is going straight in my recipe box! I can't wait for lunch tomorrow! Leftovers!

This is quite thick which is what I wanted for my mini chicken pot pie filling. I made half a recipe which is pretty much equal to one can of cream of "whatever" soup. I kept the ratio of butter to flour equal. I added finely diced celery and onion to the butter. Then I added the flour seasoned with garlic powder and poultry seasoning. After I made the roux, I thinned it out to the consistency I was going for. For those complaining about the thickness, this recipe is exactly what the author intended it to be - a soup base. You can add more milk, seasonings, meat, vegetables or herbs to make it to your liking. It is outstanding!

Excellent!! A very easy and versatile recipe. The only change I made was to add a bit of garlic powder (but I'm a huge garlic lover), and some left over broccoli and carrots that I finely crushed. Delicious!! This will be a regular feature at our home!

Very good and the proportions are perfect. I just stirred in some cheese for cheese soup

Made a seafood chowder with this with leftovers. Awesome!

I just made this to use in "southwest white chicken chili" found on this site. I haven't made the chili yet, but I wanted to say this soup base is going to be used in many of my recipes. It is a great base to use for many soups and casseroles! Thanks for a great alternative to canned soup. Oh, almost forgot to mention, I read the ingredients of a can of cream of chicken and it had garlic and onion powder, so I added a little sprinkle of each. Delicious!

My family LOVED it!! I doubled it and added a can of pink salmon and broccoli along with a tsp of salmon rub.

Simple, quick, and easy cream soup base. Using milk rather than water really does make a difference. The only thing that can be a bit of a hassle is I tend to find butter-flour lumps after I add the milk sometimes, so don't be afraid to mix well, whisk, or even blend the whole thing in a food processor. I've made this often with frozen spinach and cheese, and once or twice with bacon/ham. I'd love to try tomato or broccoli also.

Thank you, thank you Nell Marsh! Gone are the days of me using those horrible for you cream of whatever canned soups. So easy, SO good. I made just plain cream of chicken today, but I can't wait to make other variations! I made two versions of this... one batch I made exactly as written. Really tasty, nice and thick. It just seemed like an awful lot of butter and flour for the roux, so I made another batch cutting the butter down to 1/4 cup and 3 tablespoons of flour. Just as good! Perfect consistency! I used 1% milk in both batches, as well. Thank you so much! :)

This makes a tasty soup - I am living a lo-carb lifestyle so I usually use broccoli and cheese or asparagus and bacon (with a bit of parmesan). For those inquiring about making this recipe minus the flour to keep carbs down, a good product for thickening is "Dixie Diners Carb Counters Thick It Up Low Carb Thickener" available at netrition.com, which incidentally is an EXCELLENT site for lo-carbers!!

you should never use black pepper in soups. Always use white. You can't see it in cream soups and it doesn't just sink to the bottom in broth soups otherwise this is a standard base

This is excellent! I used it in the Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Dijon Sauce and it tastes perfect!

I was making a slow cooker recipe from this site (roast beef with gravy) and realized much too late that I was out of cream soup of any kind. I decided to give this recipe a try and create my own. I followed the recipe exactly, but I needed it to be cream of mushroom. While the soup was cooking, I chopped up two large mushrooms pretty fine, and cooked them in a small saucepan with a little butter. When the soup was done, I added these cooked mushrooms, and it was perfect! The only problem I had with this soup was that it was pretty salty...next time I make it, I'll probably either use unsalted butter or add only 1 cube of bullion. This made about two can's worth of cream soup. Thanks for sharing! I am so excited to make my own cream soup...the stuff from the store is not exactly healthy or cheap, and this is both cheap and relatively healthy. :) Thanks again...I'll be making this again!!!

LOVE this one. You would think that it was made with cream, it is that rich and tasty. I added a 10 ounce package of chopped broccoli that I steamed and Cooper cheese, about 3 slices. Hubby went back for seconds. What I like best about this recipe is that all the ingredients are a staple in most kitchens and I didn't have to go out and buy anything special, although I did substitute chicken granuales for the cubes - it is my preference to the cubes. GREAT JOB NELL!! :-)

Excellent recipe! I made substitutions for my diet, but did not alter the flavor. This is a keeper & has my creative cooking juices flowing for other uses. Mahalo for sharing this! (Used Smart Balance, low-fat/low-sodium chicken broth, and unsweetened almond milk)

I'll be redundant here and simply follow other comments - outstanding! For ease and simplicity of preparation (not to mention taste), this tops all other cream soup bases I've tried. I used 1 cup chicken stock, 1 cup milk, and added steamed asparagus for my first try. Pureed apx 1/3rd of batch for added flavor. Can't wait to try other veggies. TY so very much for recipe.

EXCELLENT! I precooked potato with chopped onion. Added to the pot with a can of chopped clams. Very good. Satisfied a picky husband. I noticed though that you need to cook for a good 20 minutes before serving or it tasted a bit chalky...Can't wait to use again!

Oh my, thanks for posting this recipe! So handy to be able to whip this up at a moment's notice with simple ingredients and no nasty preservatives, whether to substitute for a can of something else or as the base to a soup of your choosing. So tasty. Add this to your online recipe box-- you'll be glad you did!

Super versatile, easy and delicious. And cheap. I halved butter, added roasted potatoes, crabmeat, a little bit of coconut butter and some curry. BAM

Excellent and very fast and easy! I mixed this with chicken, a can of cream corn, black beans, and green chillies to make an excellent soup.

This was fabulous. Used it because I didn't have cream of chicken soup. It tastes great. I did add garlic, personal preference. Thanks for a great recipe. The way I calculate it, I use a full recipe if I need 2 cans of cream of condensed - soups. Works great.

Personally I always try to use country gravy mix as my soup base, we purchase it and bulk, it always works perfectly for all cream soups and eliminates the milk. If I feel it is not creamy enough I just add some heavy cream just before serving.

This is a good substitute for canned cream soups, which my hubby doesn't like. I also don't like using chicken bouillon, so I use half milk and half chicken broth. I will definitely keep this recipe on hand for future use! Thanks for sharing!

this is the same recipe i use for all my cream soups. but i add franks hot sause and a bag of chedded cheese. this should get more then 5 stars I use corn starch not flour for a glutin free recipe.

This is a great base for any number of cream soups. Just add left over veggies, canned veggies, etc. You are only limited by your imagination. I sauteed' onion, garlic and celery and added to the basic soup. Microwaved several potatoes and mixed those in. I added more milk for consistency, but it was wonderful.

I like to use corn starch instead of flour. great recipe

very good, also try using tomatoe juice in place of milk, for a tastey tomatoe base

Only giving a four because it's way too fattening as is, goodness gracious, it takes a half-stick of butter! I used two tablespoons of butter and a 1/4 cup of white flour to 2.5 cup milk and still thought it a bit too thick, I'd like to try it with maybe 4 tsp of butter next time and see how it comes out like that. Despite the richness of the original recipe it still is a wonderful base for a soup. I've made it with broccoli and some leftover mashed potatoes and loved that, and tonight we used mushrooms and corn. I'd like to try it with shrimp or clams and potatoes, should be yummy like that too.

This was a FANTASTIC base, the addition of the chicken boullion made it delicious. I will use this for all my future cream soups. This time I added: 2 chopped up baked potatoes, some dried onion (at the beginning with the flour), some crumbled bacon and a couple scoops of sour cream. We topped it with cheese and chives.

Did not care for this. To thick I like the canned better.

I made the best cream of potato soup using this recipe. Very easy to follow, impossible to mess up and tastes great! I recommend adding cooked bacon to it just as your serving it because the first time I made it, I added the bacon to the soup and the bacon got soggy.

Fast, good, and easy. I use this base for my cream of corn soup, and it is no-fail. I use cayenne in mine as well as sea salt and black pepper. It's also wonderful as a vegetarian dish using vegetable bouillon and vegetable broth.

I've used this soup base a million times! Love love love it!

AWESOME!!!! The more recipes I try from this site the more I want to try!

Very easy and very tasty. I made mine into potato soup by just adding a diced potato I cooked in the microwave, some bacon, cheddar cheese, and a little bit of sour cream. This is a very good recipe.

Excellent base for soup and sauces.

I used this recipe to make cheesy broccoli soup for a group of 40 people and it was such a HUGE hit! I usually shy away from cream soups because I am sure it will be difficult- but NOT ANY MORE! It was so easy and many asked me for the recipe. I made the recipe as described - I steamed some broccoli I had in the freezer from our summer garden and when it was steamed I dumped the broccoli and the water in and stired until blended. I also added slices of american cheese- they melted right in. PERFECT! Thanks for making me a star to my friends!!!

AWESOME! I think it needed a little more milk! I won't use "cream of" soups anymore!

This recipe is fantastic. I use powder instead of boullion, and depending on the recipe use chicken, beef or veggie powder. You will never have to open another can of cream soup again!

I had tried a cream of turkey soup from this site twice before with terrible results. The consistency and taste were never right no matter what I did. Using this as a base was exactly what I needed to get the flavor, color, and consistency just right. I added some turkey stock (fresh-made from a couple of carcasses I had), turkey meat, diced carrots, celery and a few other seasonings to this base and it came out so great. What's better is I messed up and added too much turkey stock at first, but this lent itself to "correction" very well whereas that other recipe did not. To fix, I took some of the soup into a bowl, thickened it with some flour and returned it to the pot. Consistency corrected without taking anything away from the flavor. This will be the base I use for all my creamy soups from now on. It erally is just perfect.

Needs a lot more milk, toooooo thick

I used the cardboard box of broth. Added a little bacon as it suggested. Would definitely make it again. Thanks.

This was FANTASTIC. I used much less butter and flour(two tablespoons each). I will use this for all of my cream soups in the future. YUM

Wonderful!!! I've also been looking for a cream soup base ever since I went to a tea room where they served Creamed Vegetable Soup. It was a cream base then they chopped all of the veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, very finely-probably in a food processor. Thanks!

Easy, Cheap, and SOOOO YUMMY!!

oh so easy, why buy soup?

I used this as a base for cheesy broccoli soup. It was WONDERFUL!! I did take the advice of others and used 4c. of milk. Thank you for the base recipe, will definitely be using it from this point forward.

This makes a very nice base. Tried it with asparagus and carrots. It's delicious. Can't wait to try it with chicken.

I tossed in all the leftovers from last nights roasted chicken/carrot/potato/onion dinner, and it was delish. Had to add more liquid as I went along (not all milk) and it didn't take away from the creaminess at all. Thanks for a great recipe.

Excellent flavor just eaten as recipe is. Lots of potential for creating your own cream soups. Next I will add potatoes, bacon and chives. The best cream soup base I have found.

Very quick and easy way to make a cream soup for a recipie if you don't have canned on hand. So simple!

Great for any soup!!

I always have a hard time getting cream soup to thicken. Not with this recipe, it is so simple and tasty!!! I turned it into clam chowder by adding onion, celery, clams, potato, and hot sauce.

Delicious!! I used a little less butter (5T.) and added asparagus, baby bella mushrooms and red onion I had sauteed. Yummy! willl definately make this again!

Awesome base! I forgot to buy cream soup at the grocery store and I needed it for a casserole so I gave this a try. I actually used three bullion cubes because I like the extra flavor and it turned out AMAZING! Thank you so much!

I absolute LOVE this soup base!!! It even helped me make a better version of a local diner favorite soup - cream of pepperoni - than the diner makes! Also make a great cream of broccoli soup! I use a little less flour than it calls for though so it's not as thick.

This was excellent. I doubled this recipe and added 4 cups of fresh mushrooms cooked with 1 onion in chicken broth. I did end up using an extra cup of milk plus some of the liquid from my mushrooms & onion. It's all a matter of personal choice of how thick you want the roux. The end result was just amazing. Thanks for sharing!!

I used this recipe using organic ingredients for a casserole that called for cream of chicken soup. It was very easy to make. I used all things that I already had on hand. A can of organic soup can sometimes cost as much as $3. I am so happy to have found this!

Although I used a 1:1 ratio of flour and butter, I really do like using this recipe as a base for cream soup. If anyone has a complaint about how the recipe does not call for much seasoning, simply add other spices to it. The recipe itself is versatile, so use your imagination and customize it to your liking.

This stuff is phenomenol! Don't ever buy canned "cream of..." soups anymore. This replaces that and is SO much better tasting. I combined about a cup of cream soup base with some leftover egg noodles, cooked chicken, and sauted mushrooms in a small casserole, topped it off w/ some grated cheddar cheese & baked at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Mmmmmm! I still have a cup of cream soup base left and will use it instead of cream of mushroom soup in Chicken Spaghetti.

I made this. I love it. I doubled it, for two 'Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole's. I did, however, add 4 teaspoons of white cooking wine, and garlic powder. Amazing.

TEN STARS!! Halved the recipe for a chicken pot pie...gave each family member a taste and they all swooned! This one's a keeper; you're a blessing to post! THANK YOU FROM TEXAS!!

This recipe was easy and quick. I added 4 fresh heads of steamed, chopped broccoli along with sharp cheddar cheese (about 3 cups). I had to add about 2 more cups of milk due to the large amount of broccoli, but in the end, it was awesome. The family gobbled it up! I will use this base for all my cream soups! Thanks for the recipe!

Cannot wait to try this with fresh mushrooms!

I was amazed how good this tasted plain! I used this as a base for creamed spinach, using low fat everything and it turned out awesome!

Oh Boy! This was a real hit in my family of seven. I added cooked cubed potatoes and a can of drained corn and this was the best potatoe and corn chowder ever. It is a staple in my household now.

It's very, very thick so you have to add lots of extra liquid. Also very salty so I would decrease the bouillon and taste before adding more - or maybe use chicken broth instead. I made cream of asparagus soup and added all the liquid from the can - besides being to salty, it had a good asparagus taste.

Very tasty but like most others have said . . . it's super thick. I added potatoes and corn and it's delicious.

This is a great starting point! I threw in some onions with the butter, used chicken broth to thin out the base, and added broccoli and sharp cheddar cheese. It was the best soup ever!