Can You Freeze Potato Soup?

Yes (if you’re clever about it)!

Cooking experts generally say that potato soup is a tricky soup to freeze. Lots of people enjoy batch making soups and freezing them, however, because potatoes are very porous they add an extra level of difficulty to the task.

Not only will the potatoes try to suck all of the moisture out of the soup but they will excrete starch that will cause the soup to be a little grainy when reheated.

There are a few ways to avoid this. One of them is to cook the potatoes separately and freeze them separately. This is quite a hassle and takes up more space in the freezer. The other option is to approach hot you defrost the soup differently than you would a classic soup.

Some people also recommend not adding dairy to your soup before freezing it. However, it starts to get quite complicated if you freeze the soup with no potatoes and no dairy.

This method relies on you keeping cream in your fridge constantly, just in case you fancy potato soup one day. There are ways to get around this without a lot of forethought.

Potato soup is such a good one that it’s worth learning how to freeze it properly. We’re here to help, so don’t worry.

How to Freeze Potato Soup

Method 1 – No Potatoes

With this method, you will need to apply a little advanced planning. If you know you want to use this method of freezing, when you are cooking, do your potatoes separately.

It is best to freeze the potatoes whilst they are still a little warm. You can either place them in an airtight container or plastic freezer bag. Make sure that you squeeze all of the air out of the freezer bag if you use one.

The soup shouldn’t be frozen until it at least room temperature, preferably cold. We like to store our soup in the fridge for an hour or so before freezing it. Cold soup is a lot easier to maneuver.

Place the soup into freezer bags (again squeezing all the air out) or an airtight container.

You can store this pair in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Method 2 – Potatoes Galore

For this method, cook your soup as you normally would.

Allow the soup to cool, or store in the fridge for around an hour. At this point mix half a cup of water into the soup. This will help to compensate for the moisture stealing potatoes.

After the soup has reached a lower temperature pour into an airtight container or a plastic freezer bag.

Like this, potato soup can be stored for up to three months. However, the creamier the soup is the quicker you’ll want to use it up.

How to Defrost Potato Soup

The great thing about soup is that if you want to you can cook it straight from frozen. You can also thaw it out first before cooking with it. We’ve included easy methods to do both below.

When trying to reheat a dairy-based soup we recommend allowing it to thaw first. This will help to prevent the soup from curdling whilst cooking.

Thaw the Soup 

If you have frozen your soup in a glass contrainer then you can use the microwave to thaw it. We would be worried that this quick method would upset the dairy in the potato soup.

It is also possible to use a water bath (or big saucepan) to thaw the soup. Allow the water in the bath to reach a simmer, place your container or bag into the bath. Allow reheating to happen slowly over the next 10-15 minutes. This can sometimes lead to curdling as well.

The best method for thawing a dairy basted soup is to remove it from the freezer and leave it in the fridge for 2 days. It’s that easy. We would recommend putting some kitchen towels underneath the container or bag as it will drip a little.

If you have frozen your potatoes separately they do not need to be thawed. You can either reheat them with the rest of the soup, you defrost them in the microwave before adding them to the soup.

Cook from Frozen

The best way to cook a diary-heavy soup from frozen is to do it as slowly as possible. For this, we recommend using a slow cooker. This method works for both soup frozen with and without the potatoes.

Simply add all your ingredients into the slow cooker. Add half a cup of hot vegetable or chicken stock per serving you’re reheating. If there are any other ingredients you would like to add, do it now. Set the slow cooker to low-medium and leave for 4-7 hours.

Things to Consider Before Freezing

Potato soup tends to be quite creamy and heavy. As we mentioned before the creamier your soup is the shorted its shelf life in the freezer will be. If you have used heavy cream in your soup we recommend trying to use your frozen soup up within 6 weeks.

As we have mentioned above, reheating diary-heavy soups can be very tricky. The best way to approach this is to thaw your potato soup before reheating it. It is best to do this as slowly as possible and therefore requires some advance preparations.

Many potato soup recipes suggest using a few moisture sapping ingredients. We’ve seen recipes recommend adding bread, pastry, pork, and salt on top of the potatoes.

Freezing these ingredients can lead to a grainy soup. However, adding a cup of water or vegetable stock to the soup before freezing it. This will help counteract those moisture vampires.