XXL Silicone Bags, Set of 2
102oz each and see-through, so you can portion a whole week and still find it.
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Freezer Soup Starter Packs
The slow part of soup is not the cooking, it is standing at the board dicing an onion, two carrots and two celery sticks while you are already hungry. Do it once for six soups instead. Chop a big batch of mirepoix, portion it into a bag, freeze it flat, then snap off what you need and tip it straight into hot oil. No thawing. A see-through bag matters here because the packs look identical once frozen, and you want to know at a glance whether you have two left or none.
Ingredients
- 6 medium yellow onions, diced
- 12 medium carrots, diced
- 12 celery stalks, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced, optional
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 XXL Silicone Bag (Clear), or two for smaller packs
Directions
- Dice everything to roughly the same size, about a quarter inch. Even pieces cook evenly later, which is the whole point of doing this in advance.
- Toss the onion, carrot and celery together with the salt. The classic ratio is two parts onion to one part each carrot and celery by volume, so do not worry about being exact.
- Divide into six equal piles. Each one is about 2 cups, enough to start a pot of soup for four.
- Spoon the piles into the clear bag in a single flat layer, leaving a finger gap between each so they freeze as separate slabs you can snap apart.
- Press the air out, seal, and lay the bag flat on a sheet pan. Freeze until solid, about 2 hours.
- Snap off a portion whenever you need it and tip it straight into hot oil or butter. Cook 6 to 8 minutes until it softens and the water cooks off. Do not thaw first.
Tips and variations
- Leave the garlic out if you are freezing for longer than a month. Frozen garlic turns harsh over time, and it takes ten seconds to add fresh.
- Gaps between the piles are the trick. Freeze it as one solid brick and you will be hacking at it with a knife every time.
- Cook it from frozen, always. Thawed mirepoix goes limp and weeps water into the pan.
- For Italian soups swap the carrot for fennel. For Cajun use onion, celery and green pepper instead, which is the holy trinity.
- The clear bag earns its keep here. Frozen diced vegetables all look the same through tinted plastic, and a pack you cannot identify is a pack you will not use.
The bag this recipe is built around
The XXL Clear bag holds 102 ounces and lies flat, so six starter packs freeze side by side in one layer and snap apart cleanly. Clear silicone means you can count what is left without opening the freezer. It comes as a set of two, so you can run a second batch before the first runs out.
See the Clear XXL Bags
Common questions
- Do I need to blanch vegetables before freezing them for soup
- No. Blanching protects texture in vegetables you will eat as a side, but mirepoix gets softened in hot fat anyway, so raw freezing is fine and faster.
- How long do freezer soup starter packs last
- Three months for best flavor, and they stay safe well beyond that. Write the date on the bag so older packs get used first.
- Can I add other vegetables to the packs
- Yes, as long as they are firm. Leek, fennel, parsnip and bell pepper all freeze well. Avoid potato, which goes grainy, and leafy greens, which collapse.
- Should I cook the mirepoix before freezing
- You can, and pre-cooked packs go straight into liquid with no frying step. Raw packs keep more sweetness and take about seven minutes in the pan, which is the version most people prefer.
More soup recipes
Keep the ones that work
Copy this one onto a 4x6 card. Title across the top, the six ingredients down the left, the six steps down the right, and Makes 6 packs, Prep 20 along the header. File it behind the Soups divider. Built to outlast the screenshot.
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