Freezer Friendly Soup Tips

Freezer-friendly meals! Just hearing those three words makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I absolutely adore soup this time of the year, even better when it’s already made for me. It’s versatile, soothing, filling, and healthy. Plus, it’s easy to make it into a complete meal without much fuss. I like to serve it with a salad for a lightning fast meal.

How to Freeze Any Soup: from thekitchn.com

Many of the rules for freezing soup basically simmer down to holding back the ingredients that won't freeze well and then adding them back in when you reheat the soup later. If you're making some soup to eat now and some to freeze, just scoop out the portion you want to freeze before adding these final ingredients.

1. Hold Back the Cream (including non-dairy substitutions): Cream and milk tend to separate and become grainy if frozen. It's easy enough to freeze the soup without this ingredient and stir it in while re-heating.

2. Hold Back the Pasta: Pasta turns to mush after freezing. Completely unappetizing. It's much better to boil fresh pasta and add this directly to the reheated soup.

3. Hold Back Any Ingredients Added in the Last 5 Minutes: Ingredients like fresh herbs and eggs tend to be very delicate, which is why they're added so late in the game. This makes it likely that they won't stand up well to being frozen and will taste better if added fresh. (The exception to this that I come across most frequently is canned beans, which do fine when frozen.)

4. Slightly Undercook Vegetables: The vegetables will cook a little more when the soup is reheating, so freezing while they're still slightly underdone prevents vegetables from turning to mush later on. This is an especially good tip to remember with potatoes.

5. Freeze Small Portions: Smaller portions are quicker to warm up for a weeknight meal and easier to arrange in a crowded freezer