In an effort to make a healthier Green Bean Casserole, I decided to remake the classic Cream of Mushroom Soup. I was a little nervous about it because, while I love mushrooms, I’m not a big Cream of Mushroom Soup person. That’s probably because I’ve only tasted the condensed stuff.

Imagine my surprise when the homemade version turned out absolutely delicious! The combinations of mushrooms, cooking sherry, and thyme…I’m telling ya, make this. You do need to like mushrooms, but if you do, you won’t be sorry you spent the time.

Now it’s not as thick as the condensed soup version, so as far as cooking other things with it, you’ll have to make some adjustments. But it can be done.

I recommend using an immersion blender if you have one. If you don’t, and you have any interest in making soups, I highly recommend adding one to your stock of kitchen tools. I found mine at a garage sale and this was the first time I got to try it out. Luckily, it worked fine (yay garage sales!). But really, they don’t need to be expensive to work well.

Compare this recipe to Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup (condensed):

SweetPeas and Soybeans’s Light and Earthy Cream of Mushroom Soup	Campbell’s Classic Cream of Mushroom
Calories per ½ cup: 36 Fat: 2g Sodium: 250.9 Total Carbs: 3g	Calories per ½ cup: 80 Fat: 4g Sodium: 790mg Total Carbs: 9g

Now bear in mind that if you add ½ cup of water to Campbell’s, you’ll get 1 cup of soup. So really, the nutrition isn’t all that different as far as the “soup form” goes. The taste, however, is definitely different, and you know what’s going into it. Cooking something like a green bean casserole calls for 1⅓ cup cream of mushroom soup (condensed), so using one serving of the recipe below will save you a lot of fat and calories.

Yields: 5 servings of 1⅓ cup each
Cook Time: about 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp cooking sherry
2 Tbsp light butter made with canola oil, about 8 minutes
1 ½ pounds mini bella mushrooms, roughly chopped
¼ lb shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
¾ cup minced onions
4 cloves minced garlic
32 oz fat free and reduced sodium chicken broth
½ tsp salt
1 tsp fresh thyme (or less to taste)
½ cup fat free half and half
¼ tsp black pepper (or more to taste)

Directions:

Heat oil and sherry in a 4.5-6 quart pot over medium high heat, then stir in the butter. When the butter melts, add the mini bella and shitake mushrooms. Sauté until mushrooms are lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Remove 1 cup of mushrooms to use later. Add the onions and garlic to the pot and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Then pour in the chicken broth, along with the salt and thyme. Simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from heat. Blend using an immersion blender or standard blender, then pour in the cream and black pepper. Whisk the cream into the soup, then return the cup of reserved mushrooms to the pot. If necessary, reheat over the stove and serve warm.

Nutrition Facts:

Nutrition Disclaimer: I am not a certified nutritionist…these are just the calculations I’m pretty sure are close to correct. I use SparkRecipes to generate my information.

Calories: 96.6
Total Fat: 5.7 g
Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
Cholesterol: 9.2 mg
Sodium: 667.4 mg
Potassium: 280.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 8.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.2 g
Sugars: 2.3 g
Protein: 3.6 g

Dietary Exchange: 1 Fat and 2 Vegetable servings

Jenny Craig: Skip your afternoon salad and dressing, and eat this instead!

Weight Watchers: 3 Points (using calculatorcat.com).