i love soup. love.
and, since my student teaching days, I’ve been known to make a big pot of soup each week, and enjoy the leftovers alllll week. (unless it’s august in texas. my love for soup doesn’t extend that far.)
back when I was a teacher, I’d make a big pot of soup on Sundays. nowadays, I’m known to make a soup to go with our weekly sandwich night.
but more often than not, I can’t finish all the soup.
so typically - unless a soup has potatoes or green onions - I’ll freeze it. I know some people don’t like freezing creamy soups, but I personally think they reheat well if reheated properly. I personally just don’t like how potatoes in soup reheat.
anyway. open my freezer - now with our garage freezer, or back in the day when we had our teeny tiny apartment freezer - and you’ll find frozen, homemade soup. the best thing to freeze, in my opinion.
and i promise you freezing soup is one of the easiest ways to take care of Future You. homemade soup in the freezer solves all sorts of problems.
now remember, I really don’t teach the art of freezing food - while I loveeee freezing food, much of what I do is learning by trial and error, so I don’t feel called to teach it. that said, below is my method for what I personally do, but please take it all with a grain of salt.
step 1: make soup
remember, when I was a teacher, I’d make a pot of soup every sunday for meal prep. and nowadays, unless we’re in the triple digits, I make a soup every monday. but because brett usually won’t touch soup, I serve soup on our weekly sandwich night. either way, I always have/had leftover soup.
step 2: portion off however much we want to freeze
i usually freeze the leftovers of whatever soup I’m already making for dinner - however much I know I won’t realistically be able to eat that week. cook once, eat twice!
step 3: choose one of two methods for freezing
method one: pour soup into these containers - aka my favorite containers for freezing leftovers. i find this is the perfect size to reheat for a dinner for Brett and me, or the perfect size to provide me three lunches. and these containers fit in my freezer door beautifully!
i generally like to leave an inch of blank space in my containers when freezing soups - allows for enough room for the liquid to safely expand when freezing.
do not put the lid on until the soup is cooled off. once cooled, put the lid on, label the container with the type of soup and the date, and place in the freezer. i generally try to eat anything I’ve frozen within three or four months. this is why when I’m menu planning, I check to see first what I have in my pantry, fridge, or freezer.
method two: put a silicone muffin pan on a baking sheet for stability. pour soup into a silicone muffin pan - and, once the soup is cooled off - stick the silicone muffin pan of soup into the freezer to make twelve frozen “pucks” of soup. once the soup is frozen solid, pop the frozen “pucks” of soup out and quickly place into a bag or container. label the bag or container with the type of soup and place it in the freezer for Future You.
i did this ALLLLL the time when I was a teacher. I love soup for lunch, but I really can’t eat the same thing five days in a row. the solution? having “pucks” of various soups in my freezer. i’d have anywhere from two to four types of soup pucks in my freezer at a time - say, a bag of tomato soup pucks, a bag of chicken and rice soup pucks, etc. I’d grab two or three frozen pucks of soup from my freezer, put them in a tupperware, throw them in my lunchbox, and microwave for lunch.
similarly, these days, I may grab a frozen puck or two from the freezer, throw them in a mug, and reheat for a quick, comforting lunch. the BEST!
they didn’t have these when I was a teacher, but now they create handy little molds where you can freeze little blocks of soup. the same idea as the silicone muffin pan, but easier!
step four: thaw
for method one, I do one of two things. I:
move the frozen container of soup to the fridge the slowly thaw. and when I’m ready to eat, I’ll scoop some soup into a bowl and microwave for lunch.
or I’ll take the frozen container of soup and hold it under running water until the frozen block of soup can be loosened from the container. then i’ll put the frozen block of soup in a tiny crockpot like this, and I’ll cook on lowwwww for a few hours. (cooking it on too high of a heat and too quickly can make for some nastyyyyy soup. don’t ask me how I know.)
and here’s the other important thing: while the crockpot is doing its thing, DO NOT TOUCH THE SOUP. you might be tempted to poke it or stir it or just pester it in some way, but DO NOT DO THIS. this too can make for some nastyyyy soup. do NOT touch the soup until it is 10000% heated through and thawed. i warn you, before this point, the soup will be UGLYYYY. and that’s okay. but the gist is, heat your frozen soup on a lowwwww heat over a slowww period of time, and do NOT touch the soup until it is fully heated through. only then will you do a few stirs to mix it all up and it’ll be magical.
for method two, as I mentioned before, I’ll put a puck or two or three or whatever into a bowl or a mug, and I’ll microwave in 20-30 second spurts until heated through. usually I put a damp paper towel or a damp rag over the top of said bowl or mug when heating, but I have no scientific reason as to why, other than I think that it heats things up better. don’t listen to me.
got it? I hope this helps. soup - from either dinner, from meal prep, or from my freezer - is my favorite meal. by itself, with a good salad, with crackers, with toast, with sandwich - it’s all good! and freezing soup - either by making a big soup to freeze the whole thing, or by just freezing those dinner leftovers - is one of the easiest ways to take care of Future You, in my opinion.
need an easy lunch? frozen soup. feeling a little under the weather? frozen soup. yucky day? frozen soup. rainy evening and you don’t feel like going to grab dinner? frozen soup. unexpected cold snap? frozen soup. want to take food to a loved one? frozen soup. need something easy to eat to go with that grilled cheese? frozen soup!
i swear, it solves all problems.
here’s my full list of my favorite easy make-ahead breakfast and lunch options. of course soup is on there.
and come hang out with me on instagram - i’m always sharing little memaw tips like this on in my stories.
