Save yourself some time and freeze a big batch of soup that you can eat throughout the week! Here is everything you need to know about freezing soup and thawing it, too!
Preparing food for a busy week or for loved ones in need during an illness or pregnancy can be made easy with these frozen soups or with these crockpot freezer meals!
Why Would I Freeze Soup?
What is all the rage about freezing food you ask? It can make life easier for you during busy weeks! Is there anything better than finding a delicious soup or crockpot meal in the freezer? No prep necessary.
Frozen (healthy) meals can be a lifesaver for loved ones when they are going through a time in their life where they don’t have the time to prepare meals in general.
Freezer meals or frozen soups are great meal prep options for an expecting mom or for families going through a hard time.
We love freezing soup for so many reasons–>
- Soup is easy to pack with healthy and tasty ingredients! Meal prepping a healthy recipe and sticking it in the freezer for later ensures you will have a healthy meal option when you need it.
- Preparing soup for friends and family (especially for expecting moms) makes mealtime easy for the person you’re gifting it to!
- The soup recipe options are endless! You can prepare so many different soup recipes and freeze them, but still have a variety of flavors to choose from!
Freezing Soup 101
It may seem like freezing soup is as easy as preparing a cup o noodles, but if you don’t take a few extra steps before freezing soup, you could end up with freezer-burned soup or mushy noodles.
Here are some of our best tricks and tips for freezing soup and then reheating it when you’re ready to slurp it down!
The best soups to freeze or not to freeze
There are some soup recipes that are perfect candidates for freezing and some soup recipes that you just shouldn’t freeze. The perfect soup freezing candidate is a soup that is brothy, full of hardy vegetables, and proteins.
Soups that aren’t so good to freeze are soups with dairy or soups with noodles. Not so say you can’t freeze soups with dairy or noodles, but there are some extra precautions you should take!
Soups with cream or dairy. Who doesn’t love a good creamy soup? We love creamy soup just as much as the next person, but they don’t freeze as well as brothy soups. Sometimes freezing and reheating dairy (cream, milk, cheese) can cause the dairy to curdle and form an unpleasant texture
Here’s a tip–> If you must prepare and freeze a creamy soup, we suggest making the soup without the cream, roux, cheese, etc. and freezing it as a brothy soup.
Once you are ready to eat the soup, thaw the soup out, reheat it, and then add the creaming property right before serving!
We have tested this with our crockpot chicken pot pie soup and it turned out perfectly!
Soups with noodles. The mother of all soup is, in fact, chicken noodle soup. We are big fans. We aren’t telling you that you can’t freeze chicken noodle soup, but you should take some precautions.
When you freeze soup with noodles, the noodles tend to soak up all the moisture and tend to disintegrate during the freezing process.
Hot tip–> Prepare your noodle soup recipe just as you normally would, but leave the noodles out! Freeze the base of the soup.
When you have thawed the soup and are ready to eat it, prepare the noodles separately and add the noodles to the soup right before serving.
Container Options
What kind of container do I freeze my soup in? There are so many options, people! Here are a few things to consider when deciding on a container.
How many people are you feeding? We suggest freezing soup in containers based on how many people you plan on feeding. If you are preparing soup to serve one, we suggest freezing soup in single-serve containers like a small stasher bag or a 16 oz. freezer-safe container.
If you are feeding a family, a 32 oz. container, large stasher bag or gallon-size bag should work perfectly!
How big is your freezer? How big your freezer is matters for freezer food prep. If you have limited space in your freezer, freezing soup in gallon-sized freezer-safe bags work great, because you can remove the air from the bag and store them flat.
If you have stand up space in your freezer this freezer safe 32-oz. containers are perfect for freezing soup!
Here are our favorite freezer-safe containers!
- stasher bags
- freezer safe gallon-sized bags
- mason jars
- BPA-free freezer containers (32 oz)
- BPA-free freezer containers (16 oz)
How to Freeze Soup
Step One
Prepare Soup
First things, first, decide on what soup recipe you are going to make. Choose from any of these delicious healthy soup recipes.
Next, follow the soup recipe. Remember not to add any cream or noodles to the soup. You will prepare that separately right before serving your soup.
Helpful Tip #1–> If a recipe calls for sauteing or cooking vegetables in the soup, try to undercook the vegetables if you are planning on freezing your soup.
This way, you won’t end up double cooking your vegetables. Nobody likes mushy veggies!
Helpful Tip #2 –> The single most important thing when freezing soup is to let the soup cool before placing it in the freezer.
Letting the soup cool before placing it in the freezer lowers the risk for foodborne illness and lessens the chance for freezer-burned soup!
Step Two
Freeze Soup
After letting the soup cool completely, pour soup into a freezer safe container. Here are a few things to keep in mind when preparing to freeze soup.
Helpful Tip #3–> Liquid expands when you freeze it so do not fill your freezer safe container all the way full. Leave 1-2 inches of space in a bag or container for the liquid to expand.
Helpful Tip #4–> If you are using a glass or plastic container, line the top of the soup with a piece of plastic wrap to reduce the risk fo freezer burn. The less air in the container the better.
Helpful Tip #5–> Don’t forget to label the freezer safe container with an “eat by” date! Yes, this is important! You can keep frozen soup in the freezer for up to 3 months.
We suggest labeling the soup with that date to keep track of when you must eat the soup!
Find a flat space in your freezer and place the soup in the freezer until your ready to eat it!
Step Three
Reheat Soup
When you are ready to reheat the soup, you have a couple of options!
Thaw in the refrigerator. If you have time to thaw the soup in the refrigerator, we suggest taking the soup out of the freezer and letting it thaw out on it’s own in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
After the soup as thawed out, place soup in a saucepan. Sometimes the ingredients in soup will soak up a lot of the liquid in soup when you freeze it.
If you thaw out your soup and it is lacking in the liquid department, add a half cup of liquid to the saucepan at a time until it reaches your desired liquid level.
Heat soup over medium/high heat. Bring to a boil then let simmer until you add additional ingredients (noodles and dairy) and serve.
Thaw in a water bath. If you need to expedite the thawing process, place your bag or container in a warm water bath until soup loosens from the side of the container. Pour soup (which might still be an ice block) into a large saucepan.
Heat over low/medium heat until soup thaws out completely. Add additional liquid and then bring to a boil and serve.
Microwave. We do not recommend defrosting any soup container in a microwave EXCEPT for a glass mason jar. Remove the metal lid from a mason jar and place soup into the microwave.
Use the defrost setting or set power to low and microwave soup for 5-10 minutes or until soup has thawed.
Heat soup in the microwave on high until soup reaches desired temperature.
Don’t forget to add dairy + noodles!
Now is the time to cream the soup or add in the noodles that the original recipe calls for! Pick up where you left off in your original recipe for adding cream.
As for noodles, boil noodles in a separate saucepan and add noodles to your soup before serving.
Healthy Soup Recipes
How to Freeze Soup (+ thaw it too!)
Ingredients
- A batch of soup
Instructions
- First, let the soup cool completely.
- Next, pour soup into freezer safe containers or bags. Make sure to remove as much air as possible from the container. If you are using a container instead of bag, we recommend lining the top of your soup with a piece of plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn.
- Label each container with the name of hte recipe and an 'eat by' (three months from the day the soup is made) and place soup in the freezer for up to 3 months
I have tried many recipes before, but this one stood out. The author’s creative use of ingredients added an unexpected twist to the dish, and the flavors blended perfectly. I can’t wait to make it again!
What is that Green Monster Soup? It looks good!
Here you go! https://fitfoodiefinds.com/green-monster-spicy-chicken-noodle-soup/
Thank you! I will try it soon.
Thanks, useful tips. I do freeze my chicken noodle soup after what I hate it when it’s time to eat but now reading this have really helped