Mom-To-Be Freezer Meal - Soups and Stews I

The fantastic thing about soups, is that they freeze quite well, with a few exceptions to the rule of course. Another wonderful thing about freezer meal soups? They are SUPER easy to prepare. Usually, I take the soup I want out about 30 minutes to an hour before I want to eat, place it in an appropriate sized pot and let thaw out a little before I turn on the element. If I have the stove on already for something else I'm preparing, it's doubly easy. I put the pot with the frozen soup over the element that vents the heat from the oven (on my stove, it's the top right element that has the oven heat vent) to help the soup to thaw out at a faster rate before I turn on the element to actually reheat the soup. If I'm in a rush, I skip thawing and jump straight to reheating the soup to hot - starting at a low heat and gradually turning up the heat as the soup is thawed and becoming hot.

My freezing method for stocks and soups is the "muffin tin method". I spoon whatever soup/stock into my muffin tins. I know that my muffin tins can hold up to 1/4 cup of whatever I want to freeze, which makes thawing easier than if I freeze in a jar or other larger container. It also allows me to take out single serve portions.

Once whatever I'm freezing is frozen and ready to be packaged, I take out my tins and place them on the counter for a few minutes for things to loosen (If I'm in a rush, I'll put some warm water in the bottom of my kitchen sink to encourage quicker loosening - although, I'd make sure to have the extra few minutes for blended/smooth soups, since they loosen pretty quickly and if you place the tin in warm water, even for a few seconds too long, things can get messy and your soup moulds could end up frozen together once they're packaged and refrozen)

Once things are loose and I can turn the mould around while it's inside the tin, I know it's ready to come out. You can take the moulds out a few ways, I usually opt for grabbing a butter knife and popping each one out - but be careful, if you have really nice tins, you can scratch the sides and/or bottoms and they can rust if you let them air dry. Or, you can flip the whole tin over and let them fall out onto your counter or a big cookie sheet.

Then I toss my prepared frozen moulds into a freezer bag, labelled with the contents, cooking directions, the date it was packaged. If I'm giving packaged freezer meals to a friend, I will include a list of ingredients in case they have an allergy I forgot about and I might include the website or the written out recipe in case they like it and want to make it themselves.

Butternut Beet Soup

I liked the idea of this soup. I really like beets quite a bit and I've wanted to start cooking with squash more often.Once I had all the ingredients though, I started to wonder how well all of the flavours would interact with each other. I have to say, I was not disappointed. I think this might be my all time favourite soup - for now that is.

Ingredients:
3 medium beets
4 medium carrots
1 medium butternut squash
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 14oz can unsweetened coconut milk
2 onions, chopped
10 cloves garlic, peeled
4 oz fresh ginger (I used a little less, about 3 oz maybe)
2 bay leaves

2 limes
2 cups fresh cilantro (loose with stems cut off)
1 tsp sriracha - thai chili vinegar hot sauce (I used Franks Red Hot Sauce as I didn't have this and didn't have the money in our food budget to buy any)
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Directions:Clean and peel carrots, beet and squash. Chop into sections less than 4 inches long. They just need to fit into the pot, don't worry about how big they are, you will puree them once they are cooked.

In a large pot (I ended up having to use two pots, I once everything was pureed, I just mixed all the pureed soup together so there would be no chance of inconsistant taste) over medium heat add the carrots, squash, beets, broth, coconut milk and bay leaves. Cover and allow to come to a boil.

Meanwhile, saute the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Mince the garlic and ginger. Once onion is translucent add garlic and ginger. Saute for an additional minute then add the onion mixture to the pot of stewing vegetables. When the soup pot starts to boil, reduce heat and simmer. Simmer covered for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

While soup is simmering, make the lime cilantro yogurt sauce. In your food processor add the juice of two limes, yogurt, cilantro and hot sauce. Puree until smooth. Pour into a small serving bowl and refrigerate until you are ready to serve the soup.

When the veggies are soft, you are ready to remove the bay leaves and puree the soup. Then use an immersion blender to puree the mixture. If you don't have an immersion blender, puree the soup  in batches through a blender or food processor.

To serve soup fresh, pour into bowls and top with a dollop of yogurt sauce. You can make a design if you like using simple tools like a spoon and chopsticks. If you are freezing the soup, add all the yogurt sauce and blend.

Do you have a favourite freezer meal soup?