Published 2/15/2024 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! I can’t tell you how many times a bag of frozen soup has saved the day in my house, especially after I had my baby Gus. It really solves the “what should we make for dinner” problem we seem to have multiple nights per week because it’s already a made meal, it just needs to be thawed and reheated! Can I freeze soup? You can freeze most soups, but some soups freeze better than others and there are a handful of soups we don’t recommend freezing (insert: dairy).
How to Freeze Soup
Tips for Freezing Soup
Helpful Tip #: 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. 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 of 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.
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!
Can you freeze creamy soups?
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!
Can you freeze chicken noodle soup?
Yes, you CAN freeze chicken noodle soup, but you should definitely take some precautions. When you freeze soup with noodles, the noodles tend to soak up all the moisture and can 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.
What should I freeze my soup in?
The best types of containers for freezing soup are reusable glass, freezer-safe containers. However, if you are gifting soup, you can also use freezer-safe gallon-size plastic bags or Tupperware. 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!
Ways to Thaw Frozen Soup
When you are ready to reheat the soup, you have a couple of options!
How to Reheat Frozen Soup
We always recommend reheating your soup on the stovetop. You can do this by transferring your thawed soup into a medium pot and reheating over medium/low. You’ll likely need to add some sort of liquid (broth is our go-to!) as lots may have soaked up during the freezing process, so now would be the time to do so. Before serving, give the soup a taste test and see if it needs anything!
Best Soups for Freezing
Chicken Soup Taco Soup Turkey Wild Rice Soup Chicken Enchilada Soup Lentil Soup
