Can You Freeze Watercress Soup?

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Watercress is a salad option that is often overlooked, mainly because it doesn’t last particularly long after it has been picked. However, if you plan ahead, you can make a delicious watercress soup, and it’s a refreshing and tasty lunch option to consider throughout the week. But what’s the best way to preserve it?

How to Freeze Watercress Soup

As is the case with freezing other types of soup, freezing watercress soup is nice and simple. The key is to give your soup enough time to cool before freezing it, as you should never put anything warm or hot in the freezer.

So, here are the steps you need to follow to freeze watercress soup successfully: 

1. Cool
   As soon as your watercress soup is ready, remove it from the boil and pour it into a bowl that you can then sit out at room temperature. Cover the soup with a paper towel and leave it until it has cooled completely. 
2. Portion
   If you’ve rustled up a generous batch of watercress soup for the family, split it into smaller portions. This will make your life a lot easier when you come to thaw and enjoy the soup, as you don’t need to defrost an entire batch at once. 
3. Add to Freezer-Safe Containers
   Once you’ve decided on your portion sizes, place each portion of watercress soup in a suitably sized freezer-safe container.
4. Label and Freeze
   Affix the lid to the top of each of the containers and write today’s date and the use-by date, before placing the soup in the freezer. Remember, you can freeze watercress soup for around three months.

3 Tips for Freezing Watercress Soup

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing watercress soup to have the best results:

Cool Completely
A mistake that people often make is trying to freeze soup too quickly after preparing it. If you’re not patient and freeze soup while it’s still warm or hot, it will affect its taste and texture. So, make sure you leave the soup sitting out at room temperature until it has cooled completely. 

Freeze Other Types of Soup
While watercress soup is an excellent candidate for freezing, it’s not the only type of soup that does well in the freezer. In fact, most vegetable soups and a range of meat and fish-based soups also freeze excellently, meaning you can prepare whichever soup you like and proceed with freezing it without any issues. 

Don’t Freeze Fresh Watercress
Although you can freeze watercress soup without any problems, you should avoid freezing fresh watercress just as it is. Like other salad items, watercress is high in water and doesn’t respond well to freezing.

So, making up a batch of watercress soup is an excellent way to use it up, ensuring your watercress doesn’t go to waste. 

How Long Can You Freeze Watercress Soup?

You can freeze watercress soup for around three months. While some people will be happy to freeze soup for longer than this, it’s best to use it up within this timeframe to avoid disappointment.

Soup that has been sitting in the freezer for too long can lose some of its unique flavour, so it’s best to enjoy it within three months for the best results.

If you don’t want to freeze watercress soup, you can keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days before it starts going bad.

You Can Freeze Watercress Soup for up to 3 Months

How Do You Defrost Watercress Soup?

When you’re ready to enjoy your watercress soup, simply transfer it from the freezer to the fridge. While it will take several hours to thaw completely, this is the best way of defrosting watercress soup.

Alternatively, you can thaw watercress soup in the microwave, but make sure you do it on the lowest possible setting. You can then reheat watercress soup in any way that you choose, safe in the knowledge that you have defrosted it safely.

Can You Refreeze Watercress Soup?

There’s technically nothing wrong with freezing watercress soup more than once and it should be fine if you put it in the freezer for a second time.

However, you should note that it might not taste as good as it did the first time around.

So, instead of refreezing watercress soup, consider splitting it into smaller portion sizes after preparing it, so you can easily remove the serving of watercress soup that you need at any given time.

Does Watercress Soup Freeze Well?

Overall, watercress soup freezes really well. This is the case with the vast majority of soups, and freezing batches is an excellent way to preserve your soup long into the future.

So, if you have made a batch of watercress soup to enjoy, portion it up and store it in the freezer, where it will be good for at least three months until you need to use it up.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing watercress soup or soup in general, then these may help: