Can you freeze potato soup? Nothing hits the nail on the head like a hearty bowl of potato soup on a cold day. But if you’ve made too much soup, you’ll need to save the leftovers for later use. If your family eats the soup within a few days, it can be easily stored in the refrigerator. What if you won’t consume everything within that time frame? That’s when freezing comes into play.
Can you freeze potato soup?
Everyone knows that potatoes don’t freeze that well. How about a potato soup? That depends on the recipe and how you want to approach the whole process. That said, there are a few things you can do to ensure your potato soup freezes and thaws well. Oh, and it tastes really good afterwards too!
If you’re using chopped potatoes in your soup, puree them instead. Pureed soups freeze better than chunky soups. Freezing and thawing changes the texture of the potatoes. They’ll get mushy afterwards. Blending solves this problem.
Second, if you’re adding dairy products like milk, cream, or cream cheese to your soup, add them after they’re thawed. Freezing separates products such as milk or cream. So if you add them before freezing, they may separate and you’ll have to stir more to bring the soup to its original texture. It’s a lot easier to add these when reheating to get that smooth, creamy texture you want. Also, you usually always have them handy, so it’s not a big deal.
The third thing is herbs and other ingredients, which one usually adds just before the end of cooking. Similar to milk and cream, add these when reheating the soup if possible. It tastes better then.
Now that you know what you can do to make the soup freeze better, let’s move on to the freezing process.
How do you freeze potato soup?
First of all, we need to cool the soup. You can wait for it to cool down or speed up the process in a number of ways, such as storing it in the pantry or putting the dish in the fridge. However, never put a warm bowl in the fridge. She will raise the temperature in the refrigerator and she will not like the products there. You can also place the bowl in a cold bath to speed up the cooling process.
Once the soup has cooled, it’s now time to transfer it to a freezer-safe container or bag. If using a sachet, make sure you place it in a deep bowl before pouring in the soup. This way, if the bag leaks, you don’t have to clean up half your kitchen. In addition, the bowl supports the bottom of the bag, which makes pouring much easier. Leave some headroom in the container or bag to allow the soup to expand. Label the bag with the name of the soup and the current date for future reference.
Just a heads up, freezer bags take up less space in the freezer than containers, so if you’re short on space, choose bags. The only downside is that pouches are much more prone to leaking.
Now that our containers or bags of potato soup are ready, we can then be placed in the freezer. If you use a freezer bag and are concerned about spilling the soup all over the freezer, place the bag in a container. You can remove the sachet from the container once its contents have frozen.
To preserve the best possible quality, keep the soup in the freezer for no more than 6 months. It will by no means go bad in the freezer, but its quality will slowly deteriorate over time.
Read Also: Can you freeze milk?
How to defrost and reheat potato soup
Thawing in the fridge overnight is the best way. If your soup is in a container, just toss it in the fridge. If it’s in a bag, place the bag in a container and then in the fridge. If the bag has been damaged in the freezer, it won’t spill the soup everywhere. As always, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
If the soup needs to be thawed as soon as possible, soak it in a container of cold water for a couple of hours. That should be enough.
Once you have thawed the soup, place it in a saucepan and heat over medium-high heat. Make sure to combine all the ingredients well. At this point you can add milk, cream or herbs. The soup will be ready in a few minutes.
A few more things to remember to end this article. First, a portion of thawed potato soup should never be refrozen. This means that you should eat the thawed soup within 2 to 3 days for best results.
summary
Now that you know how to properly freeze potato soup, you can store so much of this delicious soup in the freezer for later enjoyment.