I really like Martha Stewart's Mediterranean Tuna-Noodle Casserole. I suspect it'd be great with smoked turkey rather than tuna.

Ooo that looks good occhiblu!

speaking of non-canned-soup casseroles, it would be useful to have some standard replacement for the canned soup, because I swear that at least two-thirds of all American recipes call for canned soup - and we don't have that stuff here.

One time I found some British brand of canned cream of something soup, which Jan warned me was going to be horrible, but I was just SO excited that I could make one of those millions of recipes that call for cream of foo soup. I can't remember what I made - some kind of casserole thingy, but boy, was she right. urggggh. Worst. Ever. Thing. Made. With. Canned. Soup. You can't imagine.

Taz, what about sauteed vegetables in a roux? That Martha Stewart recipe has you sautee red peppers, then add flour and milk; I suspect that's the equivalent of creating a "cream of..." soup.

On the other hand, I have never made a casserole with any sort of canned soup, so I may be extrapolating a little too enthusiastically.

Or, wait, that's a bechamel, not a roux. So, what about sauteed vegetables in a bechamel, then?

I never read any recipe past the point where it says "canned soup". That's not a recipe it's an assembly.

Ok. That really doesn't help you out. Sorry. Earlier today I had an incident with a "recipe" site. Sounded good until I looked closely and all the recipes had canned goods and store bought stock.

Incident With A Recipe Site.

hee!

No, I didn't really ever make recipes with canned soup as an ingredient when I was in the U.S., but as an ex-pat, there are some strange homey things that you feel like you want sometimes... tuna casserole kind of things, the kind of things that the instructions tell you to crumble up potato chips to put on top. Usually goes with some kind of dessert recipe that tells you to crumble up wafers to go on the bottom and possibly involves a Snickers bar. Whatever. There's definite crumbling, and definite canned soup, and it's 1960s american polaroid food. It's okay-we'll-cook-this-because-your-dad-is-out-of-town fun food. It's avocado or turquoise kitchen appliances food, and it looks like this:

≡ Click to see image ≡

:)

"crumble up potato chips to put on top"

Retreats into a corner hugging "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

brandishes Lay's bag

When I lived in Italy, there were days when the only thing I wanted was gooey, greasy Tex-Mex food, which was completely unavailable in Venice.

Those were very sad days.

dons garlic Pallium

oh, yes!!! TEX-MEX! do want.

This casserole would be very different with smoked turkey, but if you pick a cooking wine that plays nicely with the turkey smoke it might be scrumptious. Smoked turkey could disintegrate over the long haul more than the lamb would; there might be a need for some of the turkey to be added early to flavor vegetables and the rest near the end to preserve its tooth.

It's certainly a delicious thing to do with lamb shanks.

I'm officially fascinated, you use canned soups for other things than, you know soup? I've never done that, had no idea.

I will fess up to using those little cubes of broth tho.

This has the one pan thing and reminds me of a casserole: Chicken Stew with Biscuits. I think it would be great with turkey. You could do phyllo instead of biscuits. I've made it twice and it is delicious.

Sometimes I make tuna-noodle casserole with the Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup. It's not too bad.

occhiblu is right - bechamel sauce is a homemade substitute to the creamy canned soup in most casseroles. Add flavorful things (sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, herbs, cheese) to taste.

I love casserole and make a lot of them. And I always use the bechamel that occhiblu recommends as the base. That's really all canned "cream-of" soup is: thickened bechamel with flavorings.

Bechamel is also what's sometimes called a "mother sauce" - once you make the basic cream (or milk, in my house) + flour combination, you can add all sorts of things to turn it into other sauces that you can base a casserole on. Bechamel becomes any kind of cheese sauce when you stir in 2 c. of any kind of grated cheese - the base for mac'n'cheese.

I make a fakey chilaquiles casserole a lot. It just involves tearing corn tortillas into strips and layering them in a dish with black beans and cheese and whatever veggies I want - often green chiles, peppers, tomatoes, maybe corn. Smoked turkey would be great in there. Sometimes I use cooked chicken or a small amount of chorizo. Over each layer goes a few dollops of canned diced tomatoes, with juice. After baking, the whole thing turns into a moist, delicious, Mex-ish feast. Top it with some salsa as you serve it. This is a good non-cream-sauce based casserole.

Baked Ziti is a casserole.
Baked macaroni and cheese is a casserole.

Alton Brown has a decent broccoli casserole - he's using yogurt and bleu cheese dressing as the filler.

Nthing the bechamel as filler/binder. A highly seasoned white sauce (or any variation on a white sauce) is going to be perfect for most of the nostalgic-style casseroles. Don't be afraid to get the roux nice and nutty.

This thread is making me feel the need to confess that my mother is the queen of cream soup casseroles, and they were pretty much a major element of my diet growing up. You may do with that information what you please.

mudpuppie, I wouldn't be surprised if my mom used 'em, too. Well, a little surprised, but only because she was so extremely frugal that she probably figured out a way to make something a fraction less expensive ---- pennies rather than dimes!

And, though I don't use the canned soups for casseroles, I'm also not turning my nose up at 'em. I can think of one recipe a friend passed on to me that made good use of canned cream of whatever soup. It was for "homemade" chicken pot pie, and called for mostly pre-fab stuff: bought pie crust, frozen mixed vegetables, canned soup, leftover chicken. I made it for her a couple of times while she was bedridden and craving comfort food, and it was goooooood.

Alton Brown did a Good Eats episode on casseroles with fresh ingredients, frozen ingredients, and even leftover Chinese food.

Part 1 (most of this is lead-in, discussion of pans and some history)

Part 2

On bechamel: absolutely.
Cream of mushroom: bechamel plus mushrooms (plus a bit of minced onion/shallot?) sauteed in butter.
Cream of celery: Same as above, sub celery.
Cream of chicken: same as above, maybe add some bouillon and sauteed minced onions.
Cream of Broccoli: same.

Etc.

Be careful to note when you translate a recipe whether or not they call for unreconstituted soups (cans are double-strength) or if they have other added liquids. You can make bechamel thick or thin. Just make sure the total liquid the original recipe calls for matches the total amount of bechamel plus liquid you add. If the recipe lists additional liquid, chances are you want a thinner bechamel. If the recipe, on the other hand, doesn't add other liquid, make your bechamel thick.

Thin bechamel has less flour/thinner roux/lower roux-to-milk ratio. Thick has more flour/thicker roux/higher roux-to-milk ratio.

I'm going to have a leftover potato for lunch today that's smothered with a cheesy bechamel, broccoli and cauliflower. NOM!.

Thanks guys.I'm no stranger to a bechamel sauce, but my google-fu was really failing me yesterday when I was looking for inspiration. I had also considered a tomato base too.

I'm also thinking maybe this turkey needs to become an Indian curry of some sort... so many yum options!