During the winter and busy weeks, I love making a big batch of homemade soup over the weekend for us to enjoy throughout the week. But when it comes to cooling hot soup for leftovers, it can get tricky.
A large pot of hot soup can take hours to cool down, and if it’s nighttime, how are you supposed to store the soup without heating the entire fridge?
And you can't leave a pot of soup at room temperature to cool down overnight. According to the USDA, any food left out at room temperature past 2 hours has an increased chance of developing harmful bacteria.
Below you’ll find my simple method to cool soup quickly and store it for future use.
Cooling Soup
To efficiently cool down hot soup to a temperature that’s safe to refrigerate, you will need to:
- Transfer
Move the cooked soup into smaller airtight containers or individual meal prep containers. - Wait
Allow the soup to reach room temperature before sealing the container. - Store
Refrigerate the soup for up to 4 days.
This method also works for homemade broths and stock. It’s also beneficial because the smaller containers are lunch-size portions you can easily reheat and pack in a thermos container for quick lunches.
Cooling Soup for Freezing
You can freeze individual servings of soup for future meals, but make sure to leave some room at the top of the container (do not fill to the rim) because liquids expand in the freezer.
Like refrigerating soup, it’s important to make sure the contents of the container are at room temperature before freezing. You’ll find more tips and details on how to freeze and thaw soup in this post.
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