Tips for Saving Broth or Soup

Whether you have a lot or a little, use these tips for saving broth or soup. You won’t be sorry and you’ll have broth or soup to use as the basis for lots of meals in the chilly winter months.

It’s wintertime and there is no better lunch or dinner than a cup or bowl of steaming hot soup. I love ramen and chicken soup. But honestly, in this weather almost any hot soup will warm the cockles of my heart as my mom used to say. these days, I’m loving vegan carrot coconut curry soup. I can’t even find the exact recipe I printed for this soup. But this one from The Kitchn comes close. In any event, I’m all about vegetables, warmth, and broth in whatever soup I make or get.

My Favorite Ways to Freeze Broth or Soup

• If you have a lot leftover
  • Freeze most of it in a larger container or several smaller ones, noting how much each container holds.
  • Save at least 1 cup for ice cube tray size portions
• If you have only a bit leftover
  • Put whatever you have in ice cube trays.
  • If you’re obsessive, you can measure how much will go into each small tray.
  • Once the broth or soup is frozen, take it out of the trays and put the small frozen blocks in a labelled plastic bag. Then you can take out however many you need when you want to use the broth or soup.

Tips for Freezing Broth or Soup

• Eliminate the air – press it out.
• Use a container that is not much bigger than the volume of the soup you want to freeze. But leave a bit of room for the broth or soup to expand when it freezes.
• Label the broth or soup!! Date it and remind yourself what it is – vegetable-based, vegan, chicken or meat? If you need instructions, add them to the label.

What to do After the Broth or Soup is Frozen

Once broth or soup is frozen in an ice cube tray, take the cubes out and put them in another container. Remember to date and label them so you know what’s in the container and how long it has been frozen. Believe me when I say that you don’t want to have to guess what the “mystery cubes” are, months down the line.

Frozen cubes are handy. Have you noticed recipes that call for 1/4 cup or a few millileters or grams of broth? If you’re like me, you’d rather take out a few cubes and defrost them instead of opening up a box of can or jar with much more broth than you need. Or if you do open a larger container, you can freeze the remainder in cubes for later.

By the way, you’ll may notice that what’s in my ice cube tray below is not what is in the quart bag of cubes. that’s right. The ice cube tray is freezing cubes of curried carrot soup, while the bag contains cubes of chicken broth.

The same technique of using ice cube trays works for other ingredients as well. Like fresh basil mixed with olive oil. But don’t add the cheese until later. So it’s really not pesto, but don’t tell my beloved that. He prefers to call it frozen pesto without grated cheese or butter.