The only thing more comforting than a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter night is a hot bowl of soup made with very little effort. All of these recipes can be made ahead of time and frozen, with a few finishing touches to add freshness on the night.
King cube ice trays and reusable ziplock bags are both great ways to freeze soup in individual portions, so you only have to reheat the amount you need.
Squash, coconut and lemongrass soup
This soup features a drizzle of fragrant lemongrass oil, made from the husks that are typically discarded. With ginger, rich coconut cream and makrut lime leaves, it’s ideal for sick days. It will take around 40 minutes to prepare the first time around – depending on how quickly you can slice up a butternut pumpkin.
The lemongrass oil keeps “almost indefinitely”, writes Tom Hunt, so you can garnish it with a fresh drizzle whenever you reheat it.
Cream of tomato soup with buttered onions and orecchiette
Yotam Ottolenghi says this soup “tastes like a homemade version of the Heinz classic”. For best results, freeze only the tomato soup itself and prepare the buttered onions and orecchiette fresh each time you serve it.
Potato and leek soup with crisp ’nduja crumb
Every element of Thomasina Miers “velvety” potato and leek soup freezes well – right down to the spicy ’nduja.
If you have a food processor or high-powered blender, it’s easy to blitz stale bread into crumbs to store in the freezer – then as per the recipe, toast them up fresh in a frying pan with the ’nduja and some garlic right before serving. For a vegetarian version, Miers suggests “topping the soup with black olive crumbs or garlicky croutons instead”.
Ethiopian lentil and spinach soup
This soup gets its (chemical) warmth from berbere spice mix, which is widely available online and from specialty grocers in Australia. Do not be tempted to swap it out for a supermarket spice blend – these lack the punch of chilli and nutty sweetness of fenugreek required to really make the dish sing.
The spinach in this dish is barely wilted, so add it fresh when reheating.
Mushroom cashew cream soup
This vegan “full-bodied soup, with the deepest mushroom flavour possible” by Hetty McKinnon is a far cry from its canned equivalent. Made with cashew cream, it is enlivened by freshly fried mushrooms, which should be prepared from scratch when you reheat the dish. Fortunately, they only take a couple of minutes to make.
Chicken, lentil and fresh turmeric soup
If you dislike the texture of reheated chicken, or want to leave a bit of bite in your lentils, you can set aside the base of this soup after blending, then add the chicken and lentils fresh when reheating – otherwise, just freeze the lot.
Be mindful that fresh turmeric can permanently stain plastic cookware, so freeze this one in glass and use a dark coloured ladle if a gentle yellow tint is likely to bother you.
Cauliflower soup with smoky baba ghanoush
Hetty McKinnon’s soup version of her beloved cauliflower salad may be vegan, but it is exceptionally creamy – and it can be made with store-bought baba ghanoush to speed up the cooking process.
Fresh pomegranate seeds add a punch of sweetness and acidity, and these should be added fresh when the dish is reheated.
Burnt eggplant and mograbieh soup
Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi’s tart tomatoey soup also gets a hit of smoke from charred eggplants, but the end result is very different.
When freezing this one, it’s best to prepare the fried eggplant and mograbieh (large pearl couscous – readily available online and from Lebanese grocers in Australia) separately when reheating, otherwise they will become too soft. The soup may lose some of its acidity when reheated too, so have some fresh lemon juice on hand to adjust the seasoning.
Corn and cauliflower chowder
Anna Jones’ vegan chowder uses cauliflower in place of potato, making the dish a little lighter than typical, though still rich thanks to the coconut cream.
The toasted nuts and crispy cauliflower leaves that top the soup should be made fresh each time. If you don’t have cauliflower leaves on hand when reheating, kale or even a few shredded brussels sprouts would also work well.
Mulligatawny
A mainstay of Indian restaurants in Britain, though not quite as common in Australia, mulligatawny is an “unapologetically old-fashioned, gently spiced fusion classic,” writes Felicity Cloake.
Freeze her version of the soup prior to adding the shredded chicken, to avoid it becoming stringy. Then, incorporate leftover chicken from a roast when reheating.
