How to Freeze Soup: Easy Tips for Storing and Reheating Soup

Storing a big batch of soup in separate freezer containers will help you keep it for much longer than in your refrigerator or at room temperature. Keeping the best soups you love frozen can be a sound food safety choice as well as a way to enjoy homemade soup for a long time without having to cook it anew on your stovetop each night. Prevent freezer burn, which will negatively impact the taste, and keep in mind soup expands as it freezes, so don’t let too many containers crowd your freezer space.

Some soups freeze better and therefore reheat better than others. In general, brothy, vegetable soup recipes—like white bean or butternut squash soup—will reheat as if they were new. The same goes for many similar types of stews made with mainly veggies.

On the other hand, soups with a lot of starchy vegetables—like sweet potato soup, for instance—can absorb much of the water in both the freezing and thawing process. This can lead to the potatoes, in this case, tasting a little more mushy after reheating. The same goes for bready ingredients, like the noodles in chicken noodle soup.

Reheated dairy soups—like different types of chowder or creamy tomato soup—can often taste curdled or off in some way, so it’s best to not freeze them.

Keeping your soup cool in the freezer means finding the best way to freeze them for you. Here are three types of containers you can use:

1. 1. Glass containers: You can use glass containers like mason jars to store soup so long as you protect their contents with plastic wrap. Keep in mind that the sturdiness and inflexibility of glass containers can quickly add up in a way that isn’t true of other alternatives. You don’t necessarily want to end up taking over every inch of space in your freezer just to make your soup last longer.
2. 2. Plastic containers: Plastic containers usually come with self-sealing tops that make them easy to store frozen soup. They can take up a fair amount of space in your freezer if you plan to freeze a large volume of soup.
3. 3. Plastic bags: Filling plastic bags with soup and then storing them as future freezer meals can save a lot of space. Ladle the room temperature soup into one or more freezer bags. Squeeze out as much air as possible and lay the bag flat. This will allow you to create a malleable container that stores the soup without any additional empty space. One con is that this method is a bit more labor intensive. Another con is that you can’t reheat the soup in the plastic bag—you must remove the soup from the freezer and let it come up to room temperature before you can transfer it to a reheatable container.

You should take care when storing frozen soup to achieve the best results. Here are three freezing and cooking tips for frozen soup:

1. 1. Cool the soup prior to freezing. Placing hot soup directly in your freezer can lead to it thawing out and melting whatever else you’ve got near your ice cube trays. Let it cool to room temperature; or if you’re in a hurry, you can add cold water or dissolve ice in your soup before transferring it to the container you’ll use to store it in the freezer.
2. 2. Separate ingredients if necessary. Most vegetable broths don’t need to have their ingredients separated, but creamy, starchy, and bready soups all benefit from storing some parts in the freezer and others outside of it. Store the basic broth, meats, and veggies in the freezer. Store separately any dairy, starchy veggies (like potatoes), and noodles to reheat and add independently before each meal.
3. 3. Defrost slowly. For the best results, thaw out your frozen soup over the course of a day if possible. Transfer it from the freezer to the refrigerator and then let it remain in the refrigerator overnight. Or place your frozen soup in a bowl of warm water at the start of your day. When it comes time to reheat it properly, you can warm it on the stovetop, in the microwave, or in a slow cooker.

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