Can You Freeze Leftover Soup?

A big pot of soup left to cool entirely at room temperature before going in the freezer spends longer than it should in the temperature range bacteria favor — dividing it into smaller, shallower containers first, so it cools faster before freezing, matters more here than for a smaller, quicker-cooling dish. Cream-based soups separate somewhat on thawing in a way a clear broth-based soup won't, though vigorous stirring while reheating generally brings a separated cream soup back together well enough.

Any pasta, rice, or potato pieces in a soup are worth considering separately from the broth itself when it comes to freezing — starches can turn mushy or grainy after a freeze-thaw cycle in a way the liquid base doesn't, so a soup planned specifically for freezing sometimes benefits from adding those starchy components fresh after thawing and reheating rather than freezing them already cooked into the pot.

Leaving headspace at the top of a freezer container matters more for a liquid-heavy soup than for many other frozen foods, since a nearly full container of liquid expands as it freezes and risks cracking a rigid container or splitting a bag seam — an inch or two of empty space is a simple, easy-to-forget precaution. A pureed soup — a blended butternut squash or tomato bisque, for instance — actually freezes and reheats more predictably than a chunky, ingredient-heavy soup, since there's no risk of individual vegetable or protein pieces turning mushy or falling apart the way they can in a soup with distinct visible chunks.

See Leftover Soup's full storage & shelf-life guide →