[Urbane Guerrilla]

Pickle relish in tuna salad. Well, hmmmm!

Now what I just found in today's paper falls under the heading of "God will provide." Today's Heloise column has a no-fat cream soup base. You make it, add in the -whatever to make today's cream-of-whatever soup.

Heloise Cream Soup Base

1 cup (237ml) nonfat dry Milk
1 TBSP (15ml) dried Onion Flakes
2 TBSP (30ml) Cornstarch
2 TBSP (30ml) Chicken Bouillon Powder
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) dried Basil
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) dried Thyme
1/4 tsp (1.3ml) Black Pepper
2 cups (475ml) water

Put all the above ingredients in a saucepan with the 2 cups cold water. Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously. Once it becomes thick, add your -whatever ingredient, like diced mushrooms or chopped celery or broccoli.

Making up the base and freezing it in batches for use in making cream-of-whatever soups is a good path. Thaw, add the ingredient, heat together and you have soup.

If the soup needs a thickening, add some instant mashed potato flakes a bit at a time -- or maybe real mashed potato? The -whatever vegetable pureed with a little bouillon will do the same thing.