[LILLILEAF]

Hi
Now as i have never made soup before i want to try pumpkin soup,i shall follow one of the recipes on here,once you have made your soup,what is the best way to freeze it?

[Swing Swang]

Option 1:
Find an identical plastic box that you have plenty of such as ice cream containers and use this as your 'standard'. Freeze soup in said containers, de-mold, and put into plastic bags (suck air out and tie a knot in top). Then you will have identical 'bricks' that easily stack.

Option 2:
Pour cold soup straight into freezer bags, suck out air and tie a knot in the top. Put all of these bags in a single large container and freeze the lot.

Option 2 takes up less space but there is a risk of the bags freezing together and it is sometimes difficult to separate them. Also the bags mare tear a little so defrost in larger container. Option one takes a little longer to do and takes up a little more space in the freezer as the 'bricks' that I've describes don't freeze perfectly flat. All said and done if I have the time I prefer Option 1

Philip

[mumofstig]

I use the 'Chinese takeaway' boxes that you can buy cheaply on Poundland or Wilko, and freeze in single portions.

[Fairy Plotmother]

I use the 'Chinese takeaway' boxes that you can buy cheaply on Poundland or Wilko, and freeze in single portions.

Same as mum, but i freeze in double portions!

[lettice]

Make loads of soup and stock for the freezer
What we use is the Poly-Lina Pour & Store bags from Waitrose.
They are very tough and you can use them again and again and can write easily on them.
They are self-standing and have strong seals.
For soups, they are big enough for many large bowls of soup. 
For sock, we fill them up, let it freeze then drop out the frozen stock as one big lump and break it into smaller lumps and put in an ice cream tub, so you can just get a small lump or two as needed.

[madcat]

If you are making soup for the freezer, you might want to make it a bit thicker than normal, perhaps adding only 2/3rd or 1/2 of the water/stock.  Then it takes up less room in the freezer (no point in freezing more water than you need) and when you are reheating it, you can add the extra liquid to take it to the right consistency.

[snowdrops]

If you are making soup for the freezer, you might want to make it a bit thicker than normal, perhaps adding only 2/3rd or 1/2 of the water/stock.  Then it takes up less room in the freezer (no point in freezing more water than you need) and when you are reheating it, you can add the extra liquid to take it to the right consistency.

Yep thats what I do. I use the Chinese takeaway containers too, but I now line them with cling film, pour in cold, stock or soup( concentrated) freeze open. Then once frozen wrap rest of cling film over,pop out frozen block & store in large, strong freezer bag, just labelling once. Defrost after removing cling film into a suitable container.

[GrannieAnnie]

I also use ice cream or margarine containers, but I wait until the soup is cold, then pour the soup into a freezer bag, which is already inside the container.  Once frozen, I lift the 'chunk of soup out of the container and stack in freezer.  That way I can use the container again straight away.

[Swing Swang]

Oh GrannieAnnie, that really is a brilliant idea - never thought of pre-bagging then just putting one bag in each container - I think this will become my default method - thanks x1,000,000! - Philip

[GrannieAnnie]

I try to please Philip!  Doesn't always work though! (trying to please people I mean not the container idea!) LOL  I also sometimes, if I've only got smaller amounts of soup, put 2 bags in the 2 litre container, then freeze them and turn them out , but you have to be careful that the bags don't split if you try to pull them apart, but something like a piece of cardboard in between the 2 bags does the trick!   

[Yorkie]

I've tried using the freezer bags but find that there's too great a risk of them getting punctured whilst in the freezer, so that they leak when defrosted.

I just use the plastic boxes (I find that a 500ml box is about the right size for a single portion), then when I want to eat the soup (and I don't plan ahead), I bung the plastic box into the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften the lid so that it isn't so brittle that it breaks when opened, then put the soup into a saucepan to finish defrosting and heating through.

Yum 

[lettice]

Never had any of the Pour n Store bags break or leak
Just made a load of soup today and popped some into bags for a few bowl servings. The soup slips out of these bags from the freezer easily, no heating required.
Also as I said above I use these bags for stock and then empty out of the bags, break up into chunks and add to ice cream tubs for ease of using.

[GrannieAnnie]

I've tried using the freezer bags but find that there's too great a risk of them getting punctured whilst in the freezer, so that they leak when defrosted.

I just use the plastic boxes (I find that a 500ml box is about the right size for a single portion), then when I want to eat the soup (and I don't plan ahead), I bung the plastic box into the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften the lid so that it isn't so brittle that it breaks when opened, then put the soup into a saucepan to finish defrosting and heating through.

Yum 

Ahhhhh, but when I'm defrosting them.  I stand the bag in the saucepan, or another similar sized container, so it doesn't matter if it leaks a little bit!   

I often re-heat defrosted soups in my microwave pressure cooker, which is ideal.