If you love Japanese cuisine, there’s a good chance you’ve had miso soup before. The soup is usually made from fermented miso paste. It has a salty and savory taste with several health benefits.
The soup combines ingredients like tofu and vegetables with variations of other items based on personal preference. The fermented miso paste used to make miso soup is a great source of protein. Because of how healthy miso soup is believed to be, the Japanese eat miso soup for breakfast.
The soup is rich in manganese, copper, vitamin K, proteins, and zinc. Since miso soup is made from a product, it supplies the body with probiotics that improve digestion and absorption of nutrients. Although miso soup is probably eaten as breakfast or a light appetizer, it can be prepared with filling ingredients and served as a main dish.
If you have more miso soup than you can finish, you can preserve the leftover.
Instead of letting the excess soup go to waste, you may be wondering: can you freeze miso soup? Yes, you can freeze miso soup. After the soup has been sealed inside freezer-safe bags, it will last in the freezer for up to 6 months. Miso soup can first be frozen in ice cube trays before being transferred into freezer-safe bags or containers for long-term preservation.
You should know that miso soup that has already been frozen, thawed, and reheated shouldn’t be refrozen. With that in mind, make sure that you only thaw a portion of the frozen soup that you can finish at once.
Freezing Miso Soup
If the portion of miso soup you wish to preserve is small, you can preserve it in the refrigerator. Refrigeration will keep the miso soup safely for about 3 days. Before placing the soup in the fridge, package it in an airtight container with a good lid. If 3 days won’t be enough to keep the soup, transfer it to the freezer for long-term preservation.
If you have plans to preserve a portion of your freshly prepared miso soup, don’t leave it out for too long. Miso soup that’s exposed to room temperature beyond 2 hours will have to be thrown away. Pack the soup on time and keep in the freezer till a later date.
How to Freeze Miso Soup
There are a couple of appropriate steps to follow when freezing miso soup. Although the process of freezing miso soup is simple, you need to do it correctly. Here’s what to do:
Step 1: Let Miso Soup Cool Down to Room Temperature
Before freezing miso soup, you must make sure that it isn’t hot. Allow the soup sit on the counter top for about an hour. However, you should remember that the soup can only be exposed to room temperature for 2 hours. Once the soup has cooled down, you can start packaging it for the freezer.
It is a bad idea to put hot miso soup in the freezer. The presence of hot miso soup in the freezer will cause the freezer’s temperature to rise. Other frozen food items in the freezer will get thawed and they’ll lose their quality.
Step 2: Vacuum Pack the Miso Soup
After the hot miso soup has cooled down, start packing it for the freezer. If you’ll be using the miso soup as an ingredient in your cooking, you can first pre-freeze it in ice cube trays. Simply fill a couple ice cube trays with miso soup and leave the trays in the freezer until the miso soup is completely frozen.
Pop the frozen miso cubes out of the trays and transfer them into freezer-safe bags. If you don’t want to pre-freeze in ice cube trays, transfer the cooled soup directly into sealable freezer-safe bags. Before sealing off the bags, try to squeeze out as much air as you can from inside the bags.
The chances of freezer burn are greatly reduced when miso soup isn’t in direct contact with cold freezer air. Once the bags are sealed tight, you can place them in the freezer.
Step 3: Label and Keep in Safe Freezer Compartment
Use a marker to write the present date on the freezer-safe bag so that you’ll always know how long the soup has been frozen for. Also press the soup flat in the freezer safe bag so that it can freeze flat in the bag. Once the soup has frozen flat, you can stand the bags upright or stack them on each other to save space in the freezer.
How to Reheat Frozen Miso Soup
Whenever you have a craving for some miso soup, simply take a portion of it out of the freezer and reheat. I’d advise you to only thaw a portion of the soup that you can finish at once – thawed miso soup shouldn’t be refrozen anymore. To thaw your soup, place it in the refrigerator overnight. The reason for putting it in the fridge overnight is that thawing by refrigeration takes several hours.
Alternatively, frozen miso soup can be thawed by submerging the freezer-safe bag in a bowl of lukewarm water. However, you need to make sure that the freezer-safe bag is properly sealed. After thawing the soup, the next step is to reheat.
Transfer your miso soup into a microwave-safe dish and set the microwave on high. Place the microwave-safe dish with soup inside your microwave and heat for 15 -20 seconds. After the soup has been heated for the first 20 seconds, stir it together. Repeat this process at regular 20-second intervals till the soup is completely heated.
Conclusion
Miso soup is a great Japanese food. Its many nutritional benefits make it worthy of being added to your diet. The fact that miso soup can be preserved for long through freezing gives us a chance to make it in large quantity. With the steps given in this article, you can successfully preserve miso soup for up to 6 months in the freezer – just make sure you follow the given steps correctly.