Soups

Hi, Andy, I am going to move your request over to the Recipe forum... probably more traffic in that area in terms of your topic.

Mushroom and Barley
Cream of Potato (useing non dairy creamer)
4 Onion
Ministrone
Tomato Bisque
Green Pea
Navy Bean
Vege vegetable
vegetable beef
seafood chowder (No shellfish )
Chicken Gumbo
Curry chicken rice
Chicken vegetable
Tomato Nacho

All can be made with chicken stock with an OU chicken soup base as enhancer

All Can be frozen if done correctly
THE LIST IS ENDLESS, JUST ADD IMAGINATION:bounce:

Using Ed's suggestions as a starting point, here are a few more to consider:

Mushroom and Barley
Cream of Potato (useing non dairy creamer)
-in summer chill the soup and add a puree of cucumber for a Cold Potato Cucumber soup
-add Indian inspired spices for a Curried Potato Soup
4 Onion
-Make it in the style of French Onion Soup or thicken it and make a Creamy Onion Soup
Ministrone
Tomato Bisque
-Grill the tomatoes for something different
-Finish with Pesto for an Italian Tomato Soup
Green Pea
Navy Bean
Vege vegetable
vegetable beef
-add rice and a lot of green and red peppers for Stuffed Pepper Soup
seafood chowder (No shellfish )
Chicken Gumbo
Curry chicken rice
Chicken vegetable
-season a variety of ways to make it Indian style, Mexican style, Thai style, etc.
-add different noodles for Chicken Noodle
-add dumplings and thicken slightly
Tomato Nacho

A few others to try:
Chili - in all its incarnations: Chili con Carne, Vegetarian Chili, Chicken Chili, etc.
Smoked Chicken and Sweet Potato Chowder - without the bacon

The possibilites are endless.

I think you would need to add the cooked rice/barley in after freezing, thawing and re-heating, to me.

My best success at freezing inexpensive soups:

(can all be chicken stock or veg stock based)...

Pumpkin soup - if you can get butternut pumpkin, all for the better, use some carrots, onions, celery and potatoes to bulk it out

Leek and potato soup

Sweet potato soup (same as above) some red capsicum (bell pepper) goes well in this, but make sure to sieve it

Green split pea soup - can be done either with or without some bacon bones, depending on cost and if you want a vegetarian soup. Need to soak the split peas for several hours beforehand, pick out the floating skins and rinse. But it pretty much takes care of itself over LOW heat.


Any cream, sour cream, milk etc you want to use should not be added before freezing. Do it when reheating.

Tomato soup with lots of gently fried mirepoix, then all blended, sieved, is cheap, pretty quick and tasty, freezes well. Lots of pepper into this one please :) to my taste anyway.

For beef broths....ask someone else :)

For a really quick soup that won't freeze, but if you are out of everything else, try a chicken noodle Thai style soup. Soak some vermicelli(glass) noodles in hot water for a few minutes, then drain.

Start with lots of good quality well seasoned chicken stock, add finely sliced ginger, sliced mushrooms, finely sliced chilli, fish sauce, light soy, cook for a few minutes, toss in some green spring onion tops, small amount of sesame oil, serve over the drained noodles

Let us know how it goes :)

IMHO a good soup is a masterpiece and a blend of flavors. Some people think you could just throw everything in a pot boil and server. The best soup I ever had was in Greece 14 years ago. Why is it that I have traveled thru Europe, Asia and many other places and I remember one restaurant in Greese in a small town that no one ever heard of. It was the best blend of flavor I have ever had in my life. Ok, with that said if you have a fast food place why not use frozen soup. It will save time and labor. If the soup is a small part of your business I would do this. These soups hold well and reheat well. If I had a Soup restaurant then I would show case my homemade soup. Figure out how many you serve a day and how did of a deal it is in your food service. Is the operation, or a small piece of the operation.....................

Hi, Andy,

As you can see from what others have posted, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

You might, too, explore the world of ethnic and regional cuisines, to find inspiration for soups your customers won't find just anywhere, but which meet your cost criterium. Chicken/kohlrabi and Corn Rivvel come to mind, for instance.

If you're going to introduce soup to your line I would figure on having at least two choices every day; four would be better. As you go along with this, see if you can develop a signature soup. That one gets served every day, and the others rotate through the changes.

Based on my own experiences, here are a few tips that might be helpful:

Do not freeze cream or dairy-based soups. They are very likely to break when you defrost them. Intead, build the soup without the dairy component, then add it for service.

Rice and other grains do not seem to be effected by freezing/defrosting. Nor by sitting. Pasta, on the other hand, can be. Like dairy, it should be added after the fact, at the last minute.

Many main dishes can be adapted to soup. That's particularly important if you find yourself overstocked for a particular dish; just use the materials to create a soup by the same name.

People are intriqued by soups which resemble dishes they're already familiar with. For example, Reuben Soup attracts people if for no other reason than they want to see how it compares to the Sandwich.

A lot of places have the pasta on the side and the waiter puts some in the soup bowl or cup at time of service. Barley is already in soup. Before service and taking soups from freezer, health wise they should be reboiled. The oly starches that normaly break in freezing is cornstarch. In chowders or pea soup potato starch can be the thickening agent.

My tomato Nacho is a basic tomato with salsa added cilantro.green tobassco and a julieanne of nacho on top with a dab of sour cream or shredded cheddar (you can use non dairy one):bounce:
Oh Yea a Bisque is a highly seasoned puree of seafood or vegetables, thick and French in orgin. It was usualy made from seafood that although nothing wrong with , did not look good for plated service, whereas a soup could and is any consistancy you want.

Focus on making stock. If you make large quantities of chicken stock, vegetable stock, and beef or seafood stock for the freezer then all you have to worry about is making a great soup everyday. Most of the flavor comes from the stock anyway and if it's on hand you could experiment with lots of soups.

Lentil soup freezes really well by the way (speaking as someone who panicks when there isn't any any lentil soup in the freezer and sets about to make a new one every time I run out.)