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There is nothing better than a homemade cream soup. Well, maybe chocolate cake, but nothing better in the realm of soup recipes, and homemade cream soups are easy once you memorize the easy butter + starch + milk ratio. We dumped the can several years ago and I’ve just avoided recipes that call for cream of celery soup because of the ingredients – just read the label. Plus, this recipe is gluten-free.

homemade condensed cream of celery soup recipe

No more. Celery is our produce of the week and this homemade cream of celery soup recipe is so stinking easy and addicting I just had to share. It’s “grab a spoon and eat it by itself” worthy. Rich and creamy and so much yum. You know easy is the name of the game around here and I’m always excited to find another way to incorporate produce into meals because a little of this and a little of that adds up.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Celery Soup Softening Celery

TIP: Starting picky eaters out on a flavor they don’t like mixed in with other things is one way I get my family eating even their least favorite produce without issue. “You liked it in this, why not give that a try?” Sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t, but I’m stubborn and I keep plowing forward. Like the saying goes, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Homemade Condensed Cream of Celery Soup Thickening Soup 1

Even better, this homemade option is so affordable you really can’t rationalize buying a can anymore. With 4 basic ingredients and a little salt and pepper, you will be making the best cream of celery soup you’ve ever eaten in your life. Then, when you are ready you can try making your own homemade cream of mushroom soup and homemade cream of chicken soup. You haven’t tasted anything until you’ve had homemade cream soup.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Celery Soup Step 3 Thickening

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Condensed Cream of Celery Soup

  • Author: Heather McCurdy
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 1 quart/3- 10.5 oz. store bought cans 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 cups finely chopped celery (appr. 7 stalks)
  • 4 cups milk
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Melt butter in large frying pan or stock pot over medium high heat.
  2. While butter is melting, finely chop celery.
  3. Add celery, salt, and pepper and cook until soft, approximately 5-7 minutes.
  4. When celery is soft, whisk in cornstarch.
  5. Add 1 cup milk at a time, whisking constantly until thick.
  6. Refrigerate until using. Keeps in refrigerator 3-5 days.

NOTES:

  1. This last part takes about 5 minutes and the soup will have a thick soup-like texture. As it cools it will thicken up more.
  2. Use 1 ¼ cups of homemade cream of celery soup per 10.5 ounce called for in recipes.

Homemade Condensed Cream of Celery Thickened

What’s your favorite recipe that calls for condensed cream of celery soup?

Homemade Condensed Cream of Celery Soup Recipe

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23 Comments

  1. Have made this recipe several times and used it in tuna noodle casserole. Comes out great, better than canned. Thanks so much for the recipe

    1. I’ve never frozen it. I would worry that it would separate and not pull together properly. I would likely do all the steps up to thickening and then freeze the base so it’s ready to be thickened when you want to use it.

  2. Here in 2020 during COVID-19 looking for ways to make “stone soup” haha, using what I have on hand and adding this and that to make a good meal. Great recipe, helped me make a yummy, comforting casserole on a stormy evening with limited pantry items but a crisper full of fresh celery from a local farm box delivery. Thanks!!

  3. 4 cups of milk seems like a lot if the goal is to replace a can of condensed soup in a recipe. After I had added only 1 cup of milk it looked like condensed soup. I decided not to add anymore. After adding it to my recipe (one that i had made “pre GF” many times) I checked to see if it was “too dry”, but it was perfect. I’m sure having the word “condensed” in the heading means your site gets more hits – but this really makes “re-constituted” soup. Perhaps you could edit the recipe to tell your readers that if they are using it in a recipe to stop after adding one cup of milk. Thank you for a good basic recipe for soup! Exploring your site, I also see a lot of other recipes we NEED to try! BLESSINGS!

    1. Hi Penny, Thank you for sharing your experience. I am so happy you were able to enjoy the recipe and that you were able to adapt it as you wished so easily and it was perfect for your dish. If this recipe sets and is refrigerated for future use, it will indeed become quite thick and useable as a cream soup with a similar texture such as canned condensed cream of celery. As the note states if you use it immediately it will be thinner as it hasn’t had time to cool and gel. If you only want to use 1 cup of milk you should only need 1 tablespoon of cornstarch per 1 tablespoon of butter/fat as that is a basic roux ratio.

    1. I have not done so but I would think it should work depending on what kind it is – a Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free may be your best bet. I will try it sometime to see what results I get. Let me know if you do give it a try.

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