Cream Soups

[SheriM]

Taking advantage of the fact I'm feeling pretty good right now, I decided to make a big pot of soup last night. I made potato-bacon, one of my favorites. It turned out okay, tastes great, but it's not nearly as thick or creamy as I'd like. How do other folks thicken their cream soups?

 

[Wifezilla]

I am a low-carber so no flour or starch for me. I use pureed cauliflower to thicken soups. I also use heavy cream instead of milk when I make it.

 

[Dace]

I make a roux. Equal parts flour and fat (bacon would probably be good with potato soup!)

 

[freemotion]

I like the cauliflower idea, it gets another good veggie hidden in there....but I am allergic to it, so I use the roux, or for very fast thickening, the old standby, a spoonful of cornstarch dissolved in a half-cup of cold water, poured into strongly simmering soup and stirred for a minute or two.

 

[SheriM]

I did make sort of a white sauce with margarine, corn starch and milk, and it was quite thick when I added it into the soup, but it just sort of disappeared. Maybe I didn't use enough?

 

[Wifezilla]

Sounds like you just needed more.

Another way to thicken beef based soups is with pureed pumpkin. With the stronger flavor of beef, you usually can't taste much of the pumpkin.

I also just made a sweet potato and chicken soup. The sweet potato flavor was a bit strong, but it was still delicious

 

[Ldychef2k]

Speaking of cream soups, I have canned the base for cream of X soup, using broccoli or celery or onion or mushroom.

I was wondering, does anything have any experience with making cream of tomato and canning it? Just thinking outside the box.....

 

[ORChick]

I have read about using potato flakes (instant mashed potatoes) as a thickener for soups, but haven't tried it myself. I usually make a cream soup with a base of 1/2 cottage cheese and 1/2 milk whirled in the blender (from S. Cadwallader's "Complete Cookbook", pub. 1977); it doesn't get really thick, just nicely creamy.

 

[freemotion]

I did make sort of a white sauce with margarine, corn starch and milk, and it was quite thick when I added it into the soup, but it just sort of disappeared. Maybe I didn't use enough?

Probably...skip the margarine (that's another topic... ) and just use cold water into which you stir a heaping spoonful of cornstarch, stir until dissolved, and add quickly to the boiling soup, stirring until thickened, about a minute once it comes back to a boil.

Use bacon grease (you do save it, don't you? ) and flour to make a roux (actually better for you than the margarine) by melting the fat and stirring in as much flour as it will hold, never stop stirring. Add the hot soup to the hot roux and stir-stir-stir so it won't get lumpy.

 

[Ldychef2k]

I am thinking that corn starch works differently that flour. For me, cornstarch works best when mixed with a cool or cold liquid like water or stock and then added to boiling liquid and it thickens almost immediately.

Flour works best in a roux, mixed with a fat to coat the particles so they don't clup and lump and then hot liquid added to it. It thickens as it comes to a full boil.

You can boil the thickening power of the cornstarch away by cooking it too long, as evidenced by about every Asian dish I have ever made.