RealGravy

Creamy Gravies and Sauces

Cream of Mushroom Soup Gravy

A tin of condensed cream of mushroom soup taken seriously, thinned with stock and built up with real fried mushrooms, onion and a splash of sherry.

  • Vegetarian
  • tinned soup
  • shortcut
  • mushroom
  • midweek
Illustration of Cream of Mushroom Soup Gravy
Prep
5 min
Cook
15 min
Total
20 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

This is a shortcut and there is no point pretending otherwise. A tin of condensed cream of mushroom soup is a stable, pre thickened base that will not split on you, and if you fry off some real mushrooms and an onion to go into it, the result is far better than the tin alone. Very good over chicken, pork chops or a plate of rice.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for four plates

Scale

Kit

  • Frying pan
  • Wooden spoon
  • Tin opener

Method

  1. Melt the butter in the frying pan over a medium heat and cook the onion for six minutes until soft and starting to colour at the edges.

  2. Turn the heat up, add the mushrooms and cook for six or seven minutes until they have given up their water and browned properly. This is the step that makes the difference between a tin of soup and a real gravy, so wait for the colour.

  3. Take the pan off the heat, add the sherry, put it back and let it bubble away for a minute until the pan is nearly dry.

  4. Spoon in the condensed soup and stir it into the mushrooms. It will be very thick and claggy at first. Add the hot stock a splash at a time, stirring, and it will loosen into a smooth gravy without any lumps.

  5. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook for four minutes to bring everything together. Add the soy sauce and grind in black pepper. Taste before adding any salt at all, because condensed soup is already salty.

  6. Turn the heat down low and stir in the double cream if you are using it. Two tablespoons is enough to take the slightly flat, tinned edge off it and make the sauce taste like something you cooked.

  7. Serve straight away, or pour it over chicken thighs in a dish and bake at 180C for twenty five minutes for a proper midweek traybake.

Tips worth knowing

  • Condensed soup is already thickened with starch, so it is unusually stable and will not split even if you are careless with the heat. That makes it a good base on a busy night.
  • It is also already seasoned, and heavily. Do not salt this gravy until you have tasted it with everything else in the pan.
  • The tinned base has a distinctive flat sweetness. Browned mushrooms, a splash of sherry and a teaspoon of soy sauce are the three things that mask it best.
  • Thin it further than you think you want it, since it thickens noticeably as it sits on a warm plate.

Change it up

  • Leave out the sherry and use two tablespoons of extra stock with half a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce for a version without alcohol, though check the label if you are cooking for vegetarians.
  • Use condensed cream of chicken soup and chicken stock instead, with a teaspoon of tarragon, for a gravy to serve with a roast chicken.
  • Stir through a handful of chopped parsley and the zest of half a lemon at the end to cut the richness.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and is one of the more robust gravies to reheat, thanks to the starch in the soup. Loosen it with stock as you warm it. It freezes for three months, though the mushrooms soften.

Questions people ask

Can you make gravy from a tin of soup?

Yes, and condensed soup works better than ready to eat soup because it is concentrated and pre thickened. Thin it with stock rather than water and add something browned, like fried mushrooms or onions, so it does not taste straight out of the tin.

How do you make tinned mushroom soup taste better?

Brown real mushrooms and onion in butter first, deglaze with sherry, and add a teaspoon of soy sauce and plenty of black pepper. A small amount of double cream at the end also softens the slightly synthetic edge that condensed soups have.

Is cream of mushroom soup gravy vegetarian?

The common supermarket condensed mushroom soups usually are, but check the label, as some contain chicken stock or Worcestershire sauce. Pair it with vegetable stock rather than chicken and the rest of the recipe is meat free.