Does anyone know of a healthy alternative to condensed soups? I'm cleaning up some of my favorite recipes, a few of which call for cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup, and I need something healthier/cleaner than canned soup. Do any of y'all make your own, or use something else altogether?

I just recently made my own. I make a roux with cornstarch and margarine 1 tbsp of each. then add half a cup of milk (I use 2%, but skim would work too), and half a cup of water. A little salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Allow to thicken over low to medium heat, until it's the consistency of the cream of mushroom/chicken/celery soup. I used mine as a base for beef stroganoff, and it worked beautifully. If you wanted you could also add some sauteed mushrooms, but I didn't I didn't miss them.

It sounds like you need something that is going to thicken and flavor whatever it is that you are making... and since you are trying to replace something that is cream based you'll have to address that as well, unless you're planning on using cream... for the thickening something like arrowroot might be a good substitute and as for as the flavor bases that you mentioned using your own cooked chicken or sautéed mushrooms would be the way to go...

I mean basically what makes canned soups palatable is all the salt in them... So if what you make is missing that "certain" flavor that you're used to that's usually the reason...

The other thing you could try is looking for alternatives to whatever recipe you're trying to make online by plugging in "healthy alternative" or "vegetarian or vegan version" of (even if you aren't going to make it veg/vegan...just to get ideas for the substitutions)

Thanks for the ideas, y'all.

Trip: I'd never heard of arrowroot, so I just googled it and it sounds perfect. Thanks!

It works really well... I like using it instead of cornstarch or things like that... I think I first discovered it when I started making my own stir-frys and was trying to get my homemade sauces like what you get from Chinese take out... lol...

I find a couple plops of sour cream or cream cheese works pretty well to give soups, etc a creamy taste. Also good seasoning makes things taste better.

These recipes are awesome with step by step instructions.

Cream of Mushroom

Cream of Celery

Cream of Chicken