Cream of Celery Base
A dry roux mix that turns into cream of celery soup with one pot of water. Also the sauce for any camp casserole.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 140
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dehydrated celery, diced or granulated | 1/4 cup | rehydrates faster the smaller it is cut |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | replaces the fresh milk; carries the fat too |
| All-purpose flour | 2 tbsp | the thickener |
| Butter powder or ghee | 2 tbsp | ghee in a small jar does not need a cooler |
| Bouillon powder | 1 tsp | stands in for stock |
| Celery salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | 1/4 tsp each |
Method
- Pour 400 ml of water into the pot and drop in the dried celery. Bring it to a boil and hold it there two minutes, then pull it off the flame.
- Let it sit five minutes with the lid on. The celery needs that time or it stays like gravel.
- Sprinkle the dry mix in a spoonful at a time, stirring hard after each one. Dumping it all at once gives you lumps you cannot fix.
- Back on low heat for two minutes, stirring the whole time, until it coats the spoon. If you carried ghee instead of butter powder, stir it in now off the heat.
- Thin with hot water if it goes past soup and into paste.
The original is a stovetop roux with fresh celery, fresh milk, and stock — three things that do not ride in a pack. Dehydrated celery, milk powder, and bouillon cover all three, and the flour behaves the same whether the fat is butter or ghee.
Order matters more than technique here. Celery rehydrates in plain water; once flour is in the pot the liquid thickens and the celery stops drinking. Boil the celery first, then build the sauce around it.
Packing
Everything except the celery goes in one bag; the celery in another. Rehydrating it before the flour hits the water is the whole trick, so keep them separate.
Variations
- Skip the extra water and stop at half the volume to get a condensed sauce for a foil-packet casserole.
- Swap the milk powder for coconut milk powder and the butter for oil to make it dairy-free.
- A packet of chicken or a handful of freeze-dried mushrooms turns it into a full dinner.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/how-to-make-homemade-cream-of-anything-soup