Oh, dear, yes.... Quite a few of them, in fact. I like this one because I can make it gluten-free by using cornstarch instead of flour, and I make it shelf stable by using coconut oil instead of butter. I use LouAna brand coconut oil - which doesn't have any coconut flavor - and I can find it at WalMart in the shortening/cooking oil isle. Try half a recipe and see if you like it. It makes lovely pudding and Alfredo Sauce as well as gravy, Condensed Cream of Chicken, Mushroom, Brocccoli, Celery, and Tomato Soup.

Source: "I Can't Believe It's Food Storage" by Crystal Godfrey

"Magic Mix" was a recipe developed by the Utah State Extension Service, and you can find more information at the link below.

MAGIC MIX
2-1/3 c. dry powdered milk
1 c. all-purpose flour, OR 1/2 c. cornstarch
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
Combine dry milk, flour OR cornstarch, and butter into a large bowl. Mix with electric hand mixer until it looks like cornmeal. Keep mix tightly covered in refrigerator for up to eight months. Yield: 5-cups

Condensed Cream of Broccoli Soup
1 c. Magic Mix
3/4 c. 2water from cooking broccoli
1 c. chopped broccoli, cooked and drained
1/2 t. onion powder
dash garlic salt
Combine Magic Mix and water from cooking broccoli. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture thickens. Add broccoli, onion powder, and garlic salt. Use in any recipe calling for canned cream of broccoli soup.

Wow, our very own Grainlady does it again!!!! Awesome! Great question, Barb, and thanks for the answer, Grainlady!
Smiles,
Sooz

My base cream soup method is to cook whatever vegetable I'm using, usually with some onion, and add bechamel sauce until it's the right consistency.

Thanks for all the information. You are way above me, Grainlady, and I thank you very much . I don't always have the sources to shop. I will try our local Walmart, but I'm not sure that they carry that particular product. Barb

grainlady, thank you! I had a friend stay over night on her way to visit her new grand son. She is gluten free. We just were talking about her missing being able to use the condensed soups for her casserole recipes. This will be great for her! She also misses using condensed vegetarian vegatable soup with the little alphabet noodles for sloppy joes. Everything she finds has gluten in it because of the noodles. Do you by any chance have a gluten free noodle recipe?

Tami

I don't really care for the texture of a soup thickened solely with cornstarch. But, to cut down on fat content, there are 3 things I do to get that nice, thick, creamy texture without using to much roux. The first, is to use much more of whatever vegetable is used in the soup than the recipe usually calls for. Once cooked, I puree most of it into the stock, and then add the remainder that I want to retain as small bits and chunks. The pureed vegetable both helps to thicken the soup, and intensifies the veggie flavor. I also, at this point, often puree a raw potato and add that to simmer. The second, is to thicken with both a roux and cornstarch. The cornstarch helps me cut down on the fat used to make a roux, but using some helps mask the cornstarch texture.

Thickening with a potato, (or pureed beans,) helps give a more substantial feel to broth based soups as well. Minestrone seems a bit heartier, more like a meal, if it is thickened in this way, for example.

How do you puree a raw potato?

That reminds me of a funny story from my childhood. I thought I'd try to make supper, and decided to make mashed potatoes from scratch. I chopped up the potatoes and tried my best to mash them, to no avail. I had to call my dad and ask him how to mash the potatoes. He said, "First boil them till they're tender...." I didn't admit to him I had tried mashing them raw.

Sally

tami_ohio-

I make my own (soba) noodles with buckwheat flour (I generally sprout, dehydrate and mill my own flour and use homemade kefir in the recipe) and you can find recipes on-line for any number of gluten-free noodle recipes. I usually try to keep some homemade g-f noodles in the freezer.

Many gluten-free flour blends will have an egg noodle recipe if you start searching the different brands. I tend to use rice products sparingly due to the arsenic in rice, which is why I make buckwheat (soba) noodles. I'll process my own brown rice (several rinses, sprouting (which includes several more rinses which helps reduce the arsenic), dehydrating before using it milled into flour.

Another good option would be Brown Rice Fettucini (it's about 1/4-inch wide and you can break it into length you'd like for noodles - it may also be available in quinoa or corn Fettucini, but I've only seen it made with brown rice), and it would work in gluten-free versions of chicken soup, beef and noodles, stroganoff, etc.

There's nothing to say you can't add gluten-free spaghetti or angel hair spaghetti (break into short pieces), macaroni, penne or pasta of any shape instead of noodles. Sometimes we just need to think outside of "normal" when going gluten-free. :-)

-Grainlady

I also thicken my soups with vegetables like rachelellen. A potato diced or sweet potato.
Califlower makes a nice mock cream. PastaJoy brand rice noodles are great in a soup needing a noodle. They also make shapes style pasta like macaroni and shells. And lasagna noodles.
Would powdered non-fat milk made with less water and pureed with a vegetable not make a nice rich thick soup? Having some good homemade stock on hand in the freezer is key to my winter soups. Sunday is soup night and tonight will be a base of duck stock from thanksgiving. I ordered extra feet and necks to richen my stocks.
I roasted a big winter squash along with quartered onions and lots of veggies that same weekend and froze in portions to add to soups.

I have to avoid both wheat and milk, so I usually cook a small potato in the soup and puree it afterwards. (Generally I saute the veggies and puree them before adding stock.) You can also use soaked raw cashews to give a creamy texture to a pureed soup, although I don't find I care for the way they taste the next day.

I never use cornstarch to thicken soups. I use it for gravy though.

I use a bechamel if I want a cream based soup, because it's the standard cream base. Bechamel is one of the mothers for a reason Equal parts melted fat and flour, add dairy (typically milk) to desired consistency. Typically I use butter, but I've also used bacon grease and poultry fats.
For non-dairy thick sauce, veloute is standard.

In making a broth based soup creamy, one can add cream, sour cream, or cream cheese to the soup. If you use sour cream or cream cheese, it's easier to put the cream into a bowl and temper it with some of your broth and whisk it to break it up and make it smooth before adding it to the whole pot. I've occasionally used milk fortified with dry milk too.

Instant potatoes can be a useful thickener. I've used potato flake in a pinch, but better is granulated instant potatoes- one can find that in restaurant supply stores like GFS.
If you have a dehydrator, you can dehydrate veggies then powder them up in a grinder to add as a thickener as well- I've done this with several veggies.

For sloppy joes, I just use tomato product, onion, ground meat and seasonings. Let it simmer down till thick. I tend to use a combination of tomato sauce, paste, and chopped tomatoes, though I've sometimes have used dehydrated tomato too to help tighten up the liquid.

Thank you everyone. I will be sure to pass the information on.

Beesneeds, that is what I do, but my friend can't have the wheat. Her mom always made sloppy joes with her old Girl Scout recipe which had a Cavan of vegetarian vegetable soup added to it. She misses it. My friend has done very well adapting to the g-f life style but still we miss things we used to be able to eat when we have restrictions!