Can you freeze potato soup? Nothing hits the spot like a hearty bowl of potato soup on a cold day. But if you made too much, you have to store the leftovers for later use. If your family will eat the soup within a few days, it can stay in the fridge just fine. What if you won’t consume all of it within this time period? That’s when freezing comes into play.
Can You Freeze Potato Soup?
Everyone knows that potatoes don’t freeze that well. What about a potato soup? It depends on the recipe and how you will go about the whole process. That means there are a few things you can do to make sure your potato soup freezes and thaws well. Oh, and it tastes really good afterwards too!
First, if you use chopped potatoes in your soup, puree them instead. Pureed soups freeze better than chunky soups. Freezing and thawing changes the texture of potatoes. They become mushy afterwards. Pureeing them solves this issue.
Second, if you add dairy products such as milk, cream or cream cheese to your soup, add them them after thawing. Freezing causes products like milk or cream to separate. So if you add them before freezing, they might separate and you will have to do more stirring to bring the soup to its original texture. It’s much easier to add those when reheating to achieve that smooth, creamy texture you’re looking for. Plus you usally have them on hand, so that’s not a big deal.
Third thing is herbs and other ingredients you usually add right before you finish cooking. Similarly to milk and cream, add those when reheating the soup if possible. It will taste better.
Now that you know what you can do to help the soup freeze better, let’s proceed to the freezing process.
How to Freeze Potato Soup?
For starters, we need to cool down the soup. You can wait until it’s cool or speed up the process in a number of ways like storing it in the pantry or putting the dish into the fridge. Don’t ever put a warm dish into the fridge, though. It will up the temperature in the fridge and the products there won’t like it. You can also put the dish in a cold bath to speed up the cool down process too.
Once cooled, now it’s time to transfer the soup to a freezer-safe container or bag. If using a bag, make sure you put it in a deep bowl before pouring in the soup. This way if the bag is leaky, you won’t have to clean up half of your kitchen. Plus the bowl supports the bottom of the bag, which makes pouring that much easier. Leave some head space in the container or bag to allow the soup to expand. Label the bag with the name of the soup and current date for future reference.
Just a heads up: freezer bags take less place in the freezer than containers, so if you’re short on space, choose bags. The only downside is that bags are much more prone to leaking.
Now that our containers or bags with potato soup are ready to go, wen can lay then in the freezer. If you’re using a freezer bag and are anxious that it will spill the soup all over the freezer, put the bag into a container. You can take the bag out of the container once its contents freeze.
Keep the soup in the freezer for no more than 6 months to keep the best quality possible. It won’t go bad in the freezer by any means, but its quality will slowly deteriorate over time.
How to Defrost and Reheat Potato Soup
Thawing in the fridge overnight it the best way to go. If your soup is in a container, just chuck it into the refrigerator. If it’s in a bag, put the bag into a container and then into the fridge. This way, if bag got damaged in the freezer, it won’t spill the soup all over the place. As usual, better safe than sorry.
If you need the soup thawed as soon as possible, submerge it in a container with cold water for a few hours. That should do it too.
Once you thaw the soup, transfer it to a pot and heat over medium fire. Make sure tos tir it well to combine all the ingredients. At this point, you may add the milk, cream, or herbs. In a few minutes it will be ready.
A couple more things to remember as we finish up this article. First, a serving of thawed potato soup should never be frozen a second time. That means you should eat the thawed soup within 2 to 3 days for best results.
Summary
Now that you know how to freeze potato soup properly, you can store as much of this delicious soup in the freezer and enjoy it at a later date.