Soup kitchen … our guide to storing and reheating soup
Homemade soup in winter is a wonderfully warm and comforting meal, so we regularly cook up a pot ready for easy dinners or workday lunches. While it is great to have soup sitting in the fridge ready to heat and eat, do you know how long it can be safely kept in the fridge or freezer? And how should you reheat it? Let’s take a look at how to store and reheat soup safely.
Generally soup can be kept for three days, but it depends on what ingredients are in the soup. Creamy soups will last three days, while clear, vegetable-based soups will last longer. Seafood soups should be used within two or three days, while chicken soup can last up to five days. You should always use your nose to smell, and your mouth to taste, before reheating. If the soup smells bad or tastes sour, it should not be eaten. Soup can be frozen in portions to suit your family and lifestyle whether that’s as single serve portions, or for two, three, or more. Soup can be stored for up to three months in the freezer.
You should always defrost frozen soup in the fridge or the microwave. You can then reheat it in a saucepan on the stove, or in a bowl in the microwave. Soup should not be reheated more than once, so only heat up as much soup as you will eat each time. When reheating broths or clear soups, bring them to the boil for three minutes. It is trickier with soups that contain thickeners like cream or flour, or with seafood soups as boiling these can change the flavour and make them too thick. Instead, bring these to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer, and stir while simmering for three minutes.
