Here's another recipe featuring one of the budget fall vegetables that I wrote about last week, celery.
This isn't one of those "must follow this recipe exactly" sort of recipes. Play around with the seasonings. Add just a bit of what's recommended then adjust according to what you have on hand and what you prefer.
This recipe makes about 2 10.5-ounce cans worth of condensed cream of celery soup. This is so good in tuna casserole. In my household of 4 adults, it's double what I need for a single tuna casserole using 2 cans of tuna and about 1 1/4 cups of dried macaroni noodles plus a cup or two of vegetables. I freeze the leftover half of the batch to use in a future casserole.
Condensed Cream of Celery Soup
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced onion
2 1/2 cups diced celery and leaves (if you like a "whiter" soup, use only the ribs, no leaves)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups rich milk or milk substitute
1/2 cup stock (vegetable or chicken) or water
1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons salt (add the lesser amount and adjust according to taste)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
3-4 quick dashes nutmeg
a pinch sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon butter, optional
Melt the butter in the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Saute the onion in the melted butter/oil until translucent. Add the diced celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic.
Stir in 1/3 cup flour. While stirring, slowly pour in the liquids (milk and stock). Cook, while continuing to stir, until the sauce thickens.
Stir in seasonings. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for a few minutes. Blend in a pitcher blender, or with an immersion blender, or in a food processor.
For additional richness, especially if using a dairy alternative milk, swirl in 1 additional tablespoon butter. Taste for seasonings and add more if desired.
If you don't have all of the herbs and spices, this will still turn out tasty for use in a casserole.
Yields 3 cups of condensed soup or the equivalent of two 10.5 ounce cans of cream of celery soup.
This soup can be frozen to use in casseroles in the future. Stir well upon thawing.
As for cost . . .
If I were to buy all of the above ingredients, the cost for this recipe would be about $1.30 or less for two cans worth, or 65 cents per can! Walmart's Great Value brand Cream of Celery Soup sells for 92 cents per can. Campbell's Cream of Celery sells for a whopping $1.72 per can. That's $1.30 for 2 cans homemade vs $1.82 for 2 cans Great Value or $3.44 for 2 cans Campbells.
What if you don't love or don't have celery? You can make a thick white sauce for binding casseroles, or make a cream of whatever-vegetable-you-have condensed soup following the above recipe using said vegetable in place of celery. For the most part, the flavor of the binding condensed soup is significantly muted by the other casserole ingredients.
So there's the recipe for the condensed soup to use in casseroles. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post as a continuation of this one.
Great idea! While I don't follow an exact recipe, more just wing it, I do something similar using cornstarch as the thickener and make a "cream of chicken" substitute utilizing my homemade chicken stock, butter, onion powder, and milk. I haven't priced the GF "cream of" soups for a few years now due to making my own, but a few years back, they were something like $2.99 per little box.
ReplyDeleteHi Cat,
DeleteI bet your version of cream of chicken soup is much tastier than the commercial one, too!
I will remember this for making my own cream of chicken soup for casseroles when I'm out of celery. I always have a couple of quarts of chicken stock in the freezer, so this is very do-able. Thank you for the suggestion.
Good deal, love celery!
ReplyDeleteI do regularly buy celery from the grocery store, but have tried growing my own celery in the past with mixed results. Actually, it was mostly a dud. But I am trying something new this year, just for fun -- this past spring I found and planted a lovage seedling. Lovage is perennial, even in my zone (Zone 5), and the leaves and stems have a strong celery-like flavor. It might not be suitable for all celery cooking applications, but I'm looking forward to seeing it coming back year after year and harvesting as needed for use in soups, stews, pilafs and such like when wanting that certain celery-ish flavor. Wish me luck!
Hi there,
DeleteWhat a great idea, to grow what will grow in your area to give that celery flavor. I'll have to look up the how-tos for lovage and see if it would grow in my garden. I love perennial herbs. I hope yours grows really well for you. Thank you for the idea!
I like celery in meals but most of my family doesn't love celery. They will eat it but not raw. I always end up dicing up the leftover celery from the fridge before it goes bad and freezing it. I have a good handful of frozen celery that doesn't look so good. I might try making cream of celery soup for use in a recipe. Hopefully it will still work but if not then I chalk it up to "at least I tried". I will use it anyway even if it's not super good because like you said, it's hidden in the recipe.
ReplyDeleteHi Alice,
DeleteI hope the cream of celery soup with the frozen celery works out. I do believe that even if it isn't perfect, it should work well in a casserole or other recipe. Good luck!