Skip the canned soup....
Yoiu need a couple of stalks of celery, some fresh parsley, black pepper.....and if you really must....some half and half mixed with a couple of tablespoons of flour.

I always make cream of potato soup, so I'd also need some milk or cream or half and half in there. I'd skip the canned soup, of course, the salt level in that stuff is astounding.

All those lovely vegetables, it could make a very nice cream of vegetable soup, instead of cream of potato!

Elery makes potato soup that is not creamy, and uses chicken broth to cook all the vegetables. That's good too, he says his mother made it when they were sick.

So anyway, I'd probably cook all the vegetables first, add a ham bone or some chicken broth for flavoring, and puree the vegetables when you are ready to eat. You could add the cream then, if you're using, or leave it out if you wish.

Annie

Skip the canned soup....
Yoiu need a couple of stalks of celery, some fresh parsley, black pepper.....and if you really must....some half and half mixed with a couple of tablespoons of flour.

I'm with Annie, cook the vegetables first, especially the onions. Otherwise they tend to have a raw flavour that isn't pleasant IMO.

I would make a simple soup focused on one ingredient, such as potato soup or onion soup or carrot soup.

I would only make a more complex soup, such as minestrone, if I had additional ingredients such as beans, greens and tomatoes.

I'm not an advocate of making soup by throwing together random ingredients. I think soup should have an identity, or a personality, which you don't get using arbitrary mixtures.

Jim

Thanks ever so, y'all. I don't have cream or milk or parsley or celery or chicken broth. I'm in the boonies and can't just run to the store any ol' time for a couple things. I was thinking maybe one can of soup, dispersed among the other ingredients in a large crockpot, wouldn't be quite so egregious saltwise. And it's the only 'cream' I have on hand The star is the potato with some onion for a little extra flavouring and carrots, well coz my family likes a few carrot slivers in their potato soup. Mine is not to reason why. 8-]

When I'm out of celery, I'll sub some celery seed. I like to grind it up in a mortar & pestle or in a coffee grinder.

No milk, then use a can of evaporated milk if you have it. I've not tried it but a can of creamed corn would prolly be good. And the soup really needs some ham or bacon bits or, if you have it, some ham broth. (I always save the juices from a baked ham & freeze it.)

Well, if all that's in the soup is potatoes, onions, carrots and water, I think most the flavor is going to be added via the soup, so you'd better go for it.

However, I think it's going to taste like a can of soup with some vegetables added. As long as your family likes that, it's all good. It would be faster, though, to just cook the vegetables on the stovetop and stir in the can of soup. You still have prep time for the vegetables so aren't saving anything there and it's only 20 minutes or so for the vegetables to cook.

I also live "in the boonies" in Michigan, but I always basic ingredients. I learned when the kids were still at home that it's the only way to guarantee a meal when necessary, keep a well stocked pantry!

Annie