Can I replace flour in a soup recipe with a 1 to 1 gluten free flour?
I have celiac disease and must eat a gluten free diet.
I saw a recipe for creamy chicken and mushroom soup, and it looked delicious! However, it called for 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. Would it be better to use a 1 for 1 gluten free all purpose flour or use corn starch instead? If I used corn starch instead, I'm assuming I wouldn't use 1/4 cup....but how much SHOULD I use?
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You can also use xanthan gum in soups as a thickener (but not 1:1 in substitution of flour). We use that in our keto diet.
Bob's Mill simple desciption
Wikipedia
Personally I would not use a whole 1/4 cup of flour to thicken a soup. I would use heavy cream and/or blend a portion of the soup.
My go-to after cornstarch is potato starch, in the same measures as the recipe would use for cornstarch. Dissolve it first with twice the starch's volume of cold water.
If you don't mind the soup not being clear, oat flour is also a wonderful thickener, and it adds a hint of almost nutty flavor. Use in the same proportion as you would regular flours.
There seems to be no clear definition for what "gluten free all purpose flour" is.
If you look at two popular brand you will find that one of them is using rice flour, the other a legume flour as their main ingredient. These two ingredients behave very very differently - rice flour is a starchy affair that is good at making things crisp, legume flours are extremely protein heavy flours which often have strong enough binding properties to make them good egg substitutes. The rest of the mixtures... kind of look like a "broadband thickening" approach, like when you know you want something thickened but not which thickeners will work so you throw a tablespoon of every thickener within a five mile radius in the mixing bowl...
Such mixtures will not all behave the same when used out of their intended application, so unless we are talking a specific brand and product, results are not reliably predictable.
My step daughter also has celiacs/coeliacs disease. We often use all-purpose gluten free flour for soups, cheese sauce and roux etc. I can honestly say there is no noticeable difference. The only thing I would recommend is if the recipe asks you to make a roux don't try and cook out the flour as it will turn lumpy. Instead just melt the butter, add the flour mix it in then go straight in with the milk/cream (all of it, don't do a little at a time, as again it'll go lumpy) I'd stick to the same ratio (1:1) this time and then alter to your liking for next time.
You could by all means use just corn flour but if you want a thick soup and this is the only thickener you may end up with gloop instead. If you do use corn flour it's best to stir it in at the end, mix it with cold water then just add a table spoon of the mixture at a time until it's the right consistency.
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