Freezing Soup For Future Meals

[Jade]

I've been thinking of making some vegetable soup to accompany my meals so I'd get to eat a good amount of vegetables more often, and I thought that probably the most convenient way to go about it was to make a big batch and freeze portions in separate containers so I could just put one at a time into a microwave each time.

Do any of our foodies here practice this at home? If so, I'd love to know which vegetable soups which soups are your favorites or which ones are the best to do this with - ones that would most likely still taste relatively fresh even after a week or two of storage. Additionally, do different vegetable soups freeze differently as well, and are cream based soups less likely to last long, or are they all pretty much the same? I'm worried cream based soups might curdle when not consumed immediately.

 

[BWF]

I make chicken stock that I freeze in glass jam jars for use in risotto, pastas and various kinds of sauces. The stock just adds a whole new dimension to the basic flavors.

I boil a whole chicken carcass (meat removed) at low heat with tomatoes, rosemary, parsley, oregano, dill, chopped onions, garlic, carrots, black peppercorns, chilli flakes, a dash of olive oil, a dash of white wine and a few bay leaves.

 

[Katie Cha]

I make a chicken noodle soup that I freeze. I add chicken, corn, chicken bouillon, broccoli, carrots, celery, onion, spices, and herbs. I freeze this soup and it tastes great no matter when I reheat it. I've never made a creamy soup before and froze it, so I'm not sure about the curdling.

 

[BWF]

I tried once and the result was so-so. I mean when I froze a cream of mushroom soup the liquids and the cream literally separated and when you looked at the glass jar where I had poured the soup into before chucking into the freezer, you could see a two-layered effect where the liquids had separated from the fat. Reheating it can bring it back to life, so to speak but the texture and taste will not be the same.

 

[OhioTom76]

I've only stored creamy soups in the fridge for a few days, then used it up - never frozen. It's also going to depend on what you are using to make the soup "creamy" too though. If you are doing something like pureeing some of the vegetable or beans into some stock then it will separate as the soup rests, but it should reheat fine and mix back together easily. Milk in the soup should be OK as well. But if you are using stuff like heavy cream and shredded cheeses in the soup, I would probably try freezing a small amount first before ruining the whole batch.

The other thing to keep in mind is if you are adding pasta to your soup you may want to use a little less than what you think you need. It will swell up a lot more after sitting in the soup for a while. I often make this mistake when making wedding soup with orzo pasta - it expands a lot, and I wind up with jars of orzo rather than jars of soup.

 

[megshoe]

Any kind of broth-based soup with no cream should be fine. Minestrone soup, chicken noodle, Italian wedding soup, beef and barley, etc should fare perfectly well in the freezer. I also do this with spaghetti sauce! Whenever I make spaghetti, I make an enormous batch of sauce so I can freeze the rest and therefore have a handy stock whenever I need a fast meal or don't feel like cooking.

 

[lizzief79]

I often make soups and then freeze them. I have yet to find one that won't freeze. My vegetable soup includes potato, celery, carrot, onion and sometimes cabbage. I also quite often make soup with peppers, tomatoes, courgettes and celery. Both of these freeze fine.

 

[dandeliion]

My mom makes huge batches of soup and freezes them for me to take home whenever I come visit. She's convinced that I don't feed myself haha but I totally appreciate it! She makes split pea pea soup, lentil soup, vegetable and ham soup and this last time she tried freezing a loaded baked potato soup and it came out fine!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We often cook soups and freeze them. When I was able to have dairy products we made the soup and cooked it, right up to the addition of the dairy (which usually goes in last anyhow) and would not add this to the frozen soup. When we defrosted the soup, and reheated it, we would then add the dairy (sour cream, cream, creme fraiche etc) which would prevent any issues with freezing the dairy and it separating afterwards. Now I do exactly the same, but add my soya cream or cashew nut cream after the defrosting & reheating stages.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

I also practice preparing soups (chicken and pork) with vegetables needed for the different recipe for my soup but with no cream and put it in the freezer for one week use. It is because I am always in a hurry and sometimes had no time to cook everyday that is why I prepare cooking my foods and soups ahead of time. And this had worked out for me for a long time already.