How to Freeze Soup (+ thaw it too!)
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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!
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).
Why should I freeze soup?
- Meal prep: 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.
- Gifting: Preparing soup for friends and family (especially for expecting moms) makes mealtime easy for the person you’re gifting it to!
- Dinner variety: 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!
How to Freeze Soup
- 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.
- Let the soup cool completely. This is important beucase you don’t wait to create any steam once you cover it. This can create freezer burn.
- Transfer the soup into a freezer-safe container or gallon-size plastic bag. Label the soup with the name and date.
- Remove as much air as possible and seal.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
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!
- 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 over night.
- 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.
- Microwave. We do not recommend defrosting any soup container in a microwave EXCEPT if it’s in a glass container. Remove the metal lid from a mason jar and place soup into the microwave. Use the defrost setting or set the power to low and microwave soup for 5-10 minutes or until soup has thawed.
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!
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