Can I freeze this homemade soup?

[ThoseWeirdStones]

New to soups so please don't scoff

I want to make a veggie soup. It will include mixed seasonal veg, barley, bone broth and sometimes maybe a soup with a tomato base with med veg and lentils (the lentils would be quinola ready to eat).

Would these things freeze well, and would they taste ok once defrosted?
Thanks:)

Yes and yes.

As they say on reddit, user name checks out

Thank you!

Absolutely.

Absolutely fine. Just to warn you, when you reheat them they can look as if they've split or the texture looks odd, but as they get hotter it all comes together and they're as good as fresh.

This is great news, thanks!

Bone broth means it won’t be veggie! But soup is the best thing to batch cook. If you are making any soup with pasta in you might want to slightly undercook it before freezing as it can get a bit mushy on reheating. I use Lakeland soup bags to freeze in , they can be reused several times.

I freeze all soups. If you buy small plastic tubs you can freeze portion sizes and an easy lunch.

I'm not vegetarian so am fine with the broth.

Some great tips!
I do have some tubs ready to go.

This is just for me, so will want to make a pot with about 4 servings of, say, 300g of soup.
I am terrible with numbers, so if anyone can advise how much stock per serving I'd need that would be so helpful.

I am using this recipe for the barley soup but it is American, it says 1.5 litres of stock per 4 servings. Sounds like a lot!

Just to be clear, I meant 'but it's American' in relation to the unfamiliar measuring, not as a criticism!

Yes freeze it

In terms of your amounts, how much soup would you eat in one go, a tin is 400ml usually

A big fresh soup, is usually 600ml and you would have half of that normally so 300ml

A small fresh soup like the covent garden ones are also 400ml

If you want 4 portions of 400ml, it needs to yeild about 1200ml of liquid, the veg will give off liquid and of course you've got your bone broth.

I dont like too much soup in one go, its too wet!!

So I would tend to have around 200ml each serving.

You also need to think about how thick you want it with the barley which will soak up liquid.

I always freeze soup. I make a big batch and have soup for lunch. I use a soup ladle to decant into a bowl and I count the number of ladles needed and then put the same amount into a pot for the fridge and the remainder in a pot/s to freeze. I use 1 litre upright ice cream tubs (Mackies) so probably about 300mls per person.
As for amount of stock I don’t measure anything as my soup tends to consist of whatever I have in the fridge that I think will go together and then add stock to just cover the veggies. If it seems a bit thick at the end I add a little more water. If you are using lentils, pearly barley etc it does tend to thicken up.
You can add a little more liquid at the freezing point if needed or when you defrost.

Just perfect thanks so much:)

That's incredibly helpful, thank you!

So AI tells me that 100g of barley will absorb around 300ml of liquid (250-300), so that 1.5 litres seems right in the recipe, 300ml to absorb into the barley, giving you around 1200ml for the rest of the soup, although obviously your veg will give off a bit of liquid, say 100ml I would guess.

That should give you 300ml ish of a really hearty soup x 4 portions give or take

Ah, I was going to cook the barley on it's own first - is this not ideal? I am using pearl barley.

You can do, I was going to suggest that also but then you dont get the barley absorbing the lovely flavour of the stock and other veg

I find veg soup like that a bit tricky at times because some of the veg falls to mush in the time it takes for other bits to cook.

I see what you mean, it will be trial and error to start with I suppose.
I could part cook the barley, perhaps? then add for final 20 mins?
Would def like the barley to absorb the flavours!

I freeze soup for work in the 500g tubs you get greek yoghurt in, just half fill them or a big ladle and half

They are the perfect size to transfer to the Sistema porridge bowl. Frozen soup travels much better on public transport 😅

I think personally I would put the parsnip and potatoes in around 10 minutes into the cook, from the recipe it would suggest that they're in there from the start which means a total cooking time for them would be 35 mins, I would imagine they might be mushy by then, but Im not sure. It wont ruin the soup at all, you'll just end up with a different texture. But why dont you follow it as its written the first time and then you can adjust in future cooks

Will do that. Thanks for taking the time ti help:)

I can talk about food and recipes all day long!!!

If you're new to making soup I can see why you want to follow a recipe. Once you've made a few you'll get the basics idea and you can just make it up as you go along using whatever you have it the kitchen.
Don't worry about quantities in particular, you can always add more liquid or boil it up to reduce.
I generally make a large pan full and we have half and freeze half. It does take up a lot of freezer space but is so useful for a quick lunch. As someone said it does separate out but blends back together as it boils. Don't worry about defrosting, bung in the microwave for a bit then break it up into a pan.
I'm not vegetarian but I rarely put meat in soup. If you have leftover meat in the fridge you can always add it at the end.

Another tip is about texture. Most homemade soups need blending but I like a bit of texture so I scoop out about half a litre from the pan before blending and put the scoop back afterwards. Gives you some bits.

I make a lot of soup so I make mine way too thick and freeze it in smaller portions. Then when it’s defrosted and being heated I add water to make it the correct consistency. This way I don’t use up valuable freezer space freezing water.

I would soak the barley in water overnight, to reduce its cooking time. I do this when using broth mixture to make scotch broth. Then it will still absorb flavour but won’t take a lifetime to cook.