Soups make the best comfort foods with rich and nutritional ingredients blended to form a smooth, enjoyable meal.
Many ingredients – both sour and sweet – can be combined to make yourself a bowl of soup that has amazing flavor. Using cheeses or creams can help to add an enticing aroma and flavor plus a delicious creaminess.
When it comes to making soups with cream cheese, you need to be careful to make sure that the cream cheese is melted smoothly. You don’t want to end up with lumps!
Many people don’t know how to melt the cream cheese properly in their soups. When this happens, the cream cheese will begin to curdle, leaving you with chunks of cream cheese floating in your soup.
We have put together some practical ways to soften cream cheese perfectly in soups so that this never happens. Read on!
How to Melt Cream Cheese in Soup
Microwave Cream Cheese
Microwaving cheese is the most common way to melt cream cheese into soups smoothly and quickly. Because of its ease and reliability, most cooks prefer this method.
Here is how you do it:
- Firstly, make sure that your soup of choice has been cooking for at least 10 minutes.
- Take a big bowl (preferably glass or ceramic, never plastic) and heat it in the microwave for about 15 seconds on high heat.
- Scoop the desired amount of cream cheese into the heated bowl and leave it to sit for around 30 seconds.
- Check the cream cheese to make sure that it is entirely soft and smooth.
- If the cream cheese is not yet soft, microwave for an additional 10 seconds at a time.
- Make sure to keep checking the texture of the cream cheese, being careful not to overheat it in the microwave.
- The cream cheese will now be ready to be added to your soup.
Put Cream Cheese in a Water Bath
The microwave method tends to be easier and more reliable than this method. However, not everyone has a microwave. This method will take some more work, but it can also produce perfectly smooth cream cheese for your soup if done correctly.
Here is how you do it:
- Take a medium-sized bowl and pour some lukewarm water into it.
- Drop the entire cream cheese pack into the bowl of water without unwrapping it.
- Leave the cream cheese in the bowl for at least 10 minutes.
- Check the texture of the cream cheese to ensure that it will melt into the soup without any issues.
- If the cream cheese is still not soft enough, allow it to sit in the water for another 10 minutes or so.
- Add extra hot water to the cream cheese bowl if you live in a cold climate or your bowl loses heat quickly. It is important to make sure that this water is warm, not hot. Hot water can leave you with soggy and bland cream cheese.
Additional Tips for Cream Cheese Soup
- Avoid overheating or using high heat for the cream cheese as it will lose flavor and compromise the texture.
- Make sure to add cream cheese to the soup gradually, stirring while you add.
- Remember to stir continuously while adding cream cheese. This will help it to mix faster and prevent lumps from forming.
- Put the melted cream cheese into the soup when the soup has no more than 15 minutes of cooking time left.
Conclusion
These are the best-known ways to melt cream cheese into your soups. Anyone can make delicious creamy soups without any curdling or chunks provided they follow the steps and pay careful attention to the additional tips provided.
