A Collection of Soups

Soup is really a workhorse of freezer cooking.  It is easy to make in large batches, easy to freeze and easy to reheat.  There is an endless variety of soups and many of them are meal all by themselves.  I highly recommend you look to your favorite soup recipes to find freezer meals that you already like.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when making soup to freeze:

1. Milk and cheese sometimes don't freeze well.  These are mostly added at the end of the cooking process, so you can freeze before adding the dairy and then add it in when you reheat to serve.
2. Some more tender vegetables get an unpleasant texture after being frozen, such as zucchini and leafy vegetables like spinach.  Sometimes these can be added when you reheat to serve.
3. Undercook your veggies and pasta in soup to avoid mushiness after being frozen and reheated. Never undercook meat!

Here are some soups I have had success with freezing:

Pumpkin Curry Soup

Difficulty: Super easy
Recipe Column: AN

Everyone should make this soup a part of their freezer stash.  It is super fast and easy to make (especially if you have an immersion blender) and quite tasty.  No adjustments are needed for this recipe to freeze well.  If you want to up the protein content of the soup, I think that silken tofu blended in right before serving would be very good in this soup, but I haven't had a chance to try it.

Potato Soup

Difficulty: Easy
Recipe Column: AN

This is my favorite potato soup, but I do think it needs a few more potatoes than the original recipe calls for.  I add 3 extra potatoes and that is reflected in the recipe entered in the excel database.  

The first steps of this recipe have you cooking  bacon pieces, removing them from the pan and saving to serve with the soup.  Once you remove the bacon from the pan you can freeze it in its own container and take out as much as you need each time you eat the soup.  To use bacon from the freezer, place the desired amount of frozen bacon pieces on a plate lined with a paper towel.  Microwave the bacon for 30 to 60 seconds or when it has gotten crispy again.  Serve with the soup.

Despite what I said above about not adding dairy, for this soup I do go ahead and add the milk when cooking as called for and it still freezes fine.  I do not add the cream before freezing.  I add it when I reheat the soup before eating.  

Minestrone

Difficulty: Easy
Recipe Column: G

I first came across this recipe when I was looking for crockpot meal ideas.  It made a ton and so I froze the leftovers and found out that it freezes pretty well.  This is not the best minestrone I have ever had, but it is tasty and easy.  Undercook the vegetables and pasta slightly in this one so they don't get all mushy after being frozen and reheated.  Do not add the zucchini to this before freezing.  Chunks of zucchini get a weird and unpleasant texture when frozen.  However, zucchini cooks quickly, so you can cut some up and add it to the soup as you reheat it, or you can just leave it out altogether,

Vegetarian Chili

Difficulty: Easy
Recipe Column: K

This is a very tasty and easy vegetarian chili.  Once again, do not add the zucchini before freezing.  The texture gets really bad.  You can chop up and add some zucchini while reheating to serve or skip it altogether.

Cauliflower Soup

Difficulty: Moderate
Recipe Column: BE

This is a tasty soup and it doesn't really require much modification to be frozen.  Just don't add the cheese at the end.  When you serve it you can add the fontina or really any cheese you want or none at all.  I generally sprinkle some parmesan in ours since we generally have it around.

Broccoli Stem Soup

Difficulty: Easy
Recipe Column: BG

This is a pretty unassuming soup.  It's one that people probably won't get too excited about, but it is warm and thick and pleasant to eat on a cold day.  It also is packed with nutritious ingredients and makes good use of broccoli stems that might otherwise go to waste.  I make it to use up the many broccoli stems I have leftover after making Sausage Broccoli Pasta.  I peel the long parts of the stem and slice all of the stem very thinly in my food processor to help them puree to a nice texture in the soup.  I also add as many broccoli stems as I have regardless of what the recipe calls for.  Last time I increased the amount of broccoli stems by about 75%. Otherwise just make this as the recipe states and freeze.  Easy peasy.