In every family, there is a situation where a cooked dish for a number of reasons cannot be eaten on time. As a result, there are several scenarios. Leave it as is and most likely throw it away after the expiration date, or try to save it for a longer period of time. The easiest way to freeze the finished product. But such an option is not always possible. Today we’ll talk about whether it is possible to freeze soup.
Stock preparation
The easiest and most affordable way to ease your everyday life is to cook more broth and freeze it in parts. At that moment, when you want to cook soup, it is enough to take one bag out of the freezer and place it in a pan. When the broth is warmed, it can be supplemented with a handful of pasta, potatoes or other vegetables. As a result, you will have a hot, fresh dish ready in literally 10 - 15 minutes.
If in doubt whether the broth is frozen, ask more experienced housewives. Many of them have long come to this way of facilitating their household duties. To do this, you need to put in the evening to cook a bone with meat for 4-5 hours. Ready broth can be left to cool until morning, then strain and pour into bags. Meat can also be divided and sorted into bags of broth or frozen separately.
Culinary recommendations
Prior to this, a method for preparing a semi-finished product for preparing first courses was described. But still, the question is whether it is possible to freeze the soup, that is, a finished dish. Professional chefs and cooks do not recommend tact to act. According to their urgent recommendations, the soup should be fresh. But making preparations (broth, dressing in the form of fried vegetables) is quite possible. Such measures will make it possible to prepare the first dish in literally 15-20 minutes.
Therefore, in the question of whether it is possible to freeze soup, experts are inexorable. You need to cook the first one at a time. The exception is cream soup. But ordinary borsch and pickles after the freezer will turn into porridge and become unpresentable. But the cream soup is quite loyal to freezing.
Freezing rules
Cheese cream soup is not suitable for this rule. No, you can put it in the freezer and even get it out safely. But the taste of cheese after heating will be lost. Is it possible to freeze mushroom soup puree? Yes, it is quite. He almost does not lose his taste.
But before sending it to the freezer, you must first cool the dish and put it in disposable packages. They should be quite dense, it is best to purchase special ones. There will be a mark on the packaging - suitable for freezing. Be sure that such a soup can be eaten in a month. The main thing is to defrost it correctly later by moving it to the lower shelf in the refrigerator.
Tomato soup
The mushroom option is by no means the only one. In general, is it possible to freeze the soup, each hostess decides for herself. Yes, it is quite possible that gourmets will refuse such a dish after defrosting it. The reason may be some shade of taste, which seems unacceptable. But from the point of view of a busy and hungry person, this is an opportunity to quickly and tasty have dinner with a fresh and nutritious dish without time expenses.
Tomato soup perfectly tolerates freezing. If in the vegetable season you do not know where to put ripe tomatoes, then boldly prepare this delicious and refreshing dish. It is easy to prepare, and pouring it into portioned packets, you get the opportunity to enjoy a delicious dish at any time.
Best recipe
To make tomato soup, you need the following set of products:
- Ripe tomatoes - 8 pcs.
- Garlic - 2 cloves.
- Onion - 2 heads.
- Thyme, celery, bay leaf.
- Olive oil.
Cooking soup is a pleasure. To do this, you first need to lower the tomatoes for several minutes in boiling water. This allows you to remove the skin without any problems. After that, grind them in a blender. Lightly fry onion and garlic, celery in a saucepan. Pour in tomato puree and let it boil.
The soup is ready, now leave it to cool. Pour a completely cold dish into portioned sachets for freezing. Make sure that no fluid seeps through the seams. Put it in the freezer, and when the briquettes are completely frozen, you can compactly place them in the freezer.
Cereal soups
We will continue to consider whether it is possible to freeze soup in the freezer. This can be done not only with a freshly prepared dish. If on the second day it becomes clear that it will not be possible to finish the soup, then feel free to send it to the refrigerator. You can freeze not only mashed soups, although they are considered the most suitable for this manipulation. It is quite possible to freeze buckwheat and rice, pea or bean soups.
There is one more point. Is it possible to freeze cooked pasta soup? This question is usually asked by housewives who are faced with a deterioration in the quality of the dish after being in the refrigerator. Indeed, after defrosting the soup will turn gray. This is not your fault, but simply the reaction of starch to a temperature difference. There are two options, or put up with the situation, or cook soups with pasta only once.
The subtleties of the procedure
Fresh soup should cool completely at room temperature. It is undesirable to put it in the refrigerator. This is bad for the kitchen unit itself, and also creates difficulties in packaging, since the broth thickens when it cools. To cool the soup faster, you can put the pot in a basin with cold water. Then in an hour you can safely lay it out in portioned packets.
A little about choosing dishes, or how to freeze soups properly. It is necessary to take care of the container itself for freezing. A container with a lid is best suited for these purposes. In the store you can find plastic buckets of 300 or 500 ml, as well as 1 liter. Choose the one that is best for your family, considering that a serving per person is about 300 g.
Getting down to business
First you need to rinse the container and wipe off excess moisture so that it does not freeze on the lid. Then you must follow these steps:
- First, you need to put several pieces of meat in each container. This is an important point, because when you fill them, there may no longer be room for meat.
- After that, fill the containers with soup, taking into account the balance of the broth and thick. It is necessary that all this be distributed evenly.
- Be sure to leave space in the container, that is, do not fill it to the top. Approximately 1 cm should remain for air under the cover. This space will be enough to compensate for the increase in volume during freezing.
- Sign each container, indicating the type of dish and the date of preparation.
Freezer room
Here a lot depends on its design and the characteristics of the container. If you have a large freezer, then the task is much simpler. It is enough to allocate a place in it with a flat surface and lay out containers or bags of soup. In old fridges, freezers are small, and temperatures vary in different places. Therefore, containers should be located at the rear wall. It is colder here, and the temperature is more constant.
You can store meat soups for no more than 3 months. If dairy products were used for cooking, then the storage time is reduced to 2 months. Do not forget that re-freezing soups is not recommended. That is why you need to choose the packaging according to the needs of your family.
If there are no containers
It is quite simple to assume that at the right moment there will not be suitable buckets with a lid on hand. How to freeze soup at home in this case? Simple plastic bags are also suitable, only you need to choose the most durable. They are convenient for freezing mashed soups, but ordinary buckwheat soup can be packaged quite normally.
To do this, you need to pick up a container in which you will make packages with soup until the contents freeze. Immediately place empty bags in it and carefully unfold them to make it convenient to fill. Pour the required amount of soup, then tie it tightly and put it in the freezer. You can purchase special bags for freezing with locks, they are reusable. They can be washed and reused.
Instead of a conclusion
Such a simple technique can greatly save the time and effort of the hostess. After removing from the freezer, the soup should be placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. It does not completely defrost, but moves away from the walls. That is, the soup can be transferred to a bowl and heated in the microwave.