How to Freeze Soup in Mason Jars

Here's how to freeze soup in mason jars. It's a great way to have your favorite soups on hand for the week or season - and it doesn't take much time at all.

As the weather cools down and the leaves start to change color, it's officially soup weather. And what could be better than a warm, cozy bowl of your favorite soup on a cold day? 

How about having that same soup all week long without ever having to cook it again? 

Why freeze soup?

Freeze leftovers in individually portioned containers for night’s when your family walking in late from dance, sports, or whatever. Or, have a leftover night when everyone can pick something from the freezer for dinner. It’s like a buffet night in your own home! 

The reason I love freezing soup in glass jars is that the glass doesn't get a funny film on them. You know, like when you store spaghetti in plastic containers?

I suppose there could be something said about BPA in plastics vs glass and all that jazz, but I just love good glass containers. Mason jars fit the bill!

How to freeze soup in mason jars

It's easy to freeze soup in Mason jars in a few simple steps. From pulled pork chili to Homemade Chicken Stock- here's how.

Gather all the materials you need 

You’re gonna need, you guessed it - mason jars! 

Mason jars come in a variety of sizes and are a sustainable and safe way to store many foods, both wet and dry. I use them to store everything from dry goods and baking ingredients in my pantry and of course, I use them to freeze homemade soup and spaghetti sauce! 

This is a great option if you don't want to go through the canning process, and in my opinion is the easiest and best way to freeze soup.

I have quite a collection of my Grandma Rood’s mason jars. When they retired from farming, they had a huge farm auction.

The prize I walked away with was boxes of her vintage mason jars in various blue, green and clear colors. What was the cost of such a collection? Two bucks, folks. And I think I could have saved a dollar because I might have bid against myself.

I don’t get out much to auctions, clearly. You can’t take me anywhere.

Anyway, my favorite jars to use when freezing soup are wide mouth mason jars. 

The 16-ounce jars are small enough to fit in your lunch box or bag, as well as anywhere in your refrigerator or freezer. However, they are also large enough to hold single servings of vegetables, salads, soups, and other ingredients. 

You can also get the larger 32-ounce mason jars if you have a high level of meal prep storage you want to do. Just make sure that whichever size you do opt for, you get the wide-mouth version. This makes it easier to store anything you want, and you wonít need to worry about spilling the meals down the sides of the jar.

You can find jars (Ball jars or Kerr jars are ones I see often) at Farm & Fleet, Rural King, Walmart, and seasonally at Target. You can also find them at Amazon but they tend to run a little more expensive.

You can also freeze soups in zip-top plastic freezer bags. I'll cover that another day!

Cook your soup

I could come up with a soup for every day of the year. There’s just something about a cozy bowl of soup that makes this farm girl’s heart happy! In the winter I love eating vegetable soup from my garden and hearty soups like soup. Come summertime, I’m down with Corn Chowder or X.

So many different types of soup freeze really well.

A few types of soup that don’t freeze well are soups with a lot of cheesy or creamy soups. In my soup recipes here at This Farm Girl Cooks, I try to point out if a soup is freezable or not.

Now, assuming your soup is a candidate for freezing, let’s move on.

How to fill mason jars with soup

Before we get carried away with filling up our jars, let’s talk about the soup temperature. Hot liquid can't go straight into glass food storage or you'll end up with a cracked jar.

Make sure you don't ladle your hot soup or hot food into any glass containers, really.

Freezing liquids ice crystals freezer burn

Using wide mouth jars will make pouring your soup into jars easy peasy. Trust me on this, I can’t tell you how much soup I’ve spilled down the side of jars. A great tool that I 100% percent recommend you acquire is a canning funnel or wide mouth funnel and a ladle. They’re a lifesaver when it comes to freezing soup in mason jars.

How much space to leave at the top?

You'll need to leave room for expansion, so don't fill the jars completely to the top.

Put lids on jars and place in freezer overnight

You can use the metal lid and band that come with your canning jars, or you can use plastic lids. I also save the tops from our peanut butter jars because they fit our glass mason jars, too!

Use a clean dish towel or paper towel to wipe the rim and top of the jar before placing a lid on your soup.

Label your soup!

Seriously, I can't stress this enough! I like to use a permanent marker on freezer tape or painter's tape for easy removal later.

Remove from freezer to thaw before eating or reheating 

When thawing frozen foods, place in your refrigerator overnight. You can speed up the thawing process by placing bag of frozen food under cool, running water. It’s recommended that you never thaw foods on your countertop but I can’t say I always comply. 

But I’ll do a little covering here and say never thaw foods on your countertop. 

There.

Store frozen soup in a cool, dry place until needed.

Freezing soup in mason jars for 1 or 2

Freezing soup is about to be your best friend! I happen to only know how to make big batch of soup and really, once you've gone through the effort for make soup for 2, you may as well make it for 4!

This is a good idea to save meals for later. Just pull a jar in advance for an easy dinner!

How long can I freeze soups and stews?

Jars of soup & stews are cool with hanging out in the freezer for 2-3 months.

Some of the best soups for freezing

Dutch Oven Chicken Noodle Soup

Instant Pot Beef and Barley Soup

These also make great gifts for friends or relatives! Think of someone who moved into a new home, had a new baby, or could use a thoughtful pick-me-up.

If you show up on my front porch with homemade soup in a mason jar, I promise you’re getting an invite into my kitchen for coffee or tea!