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Soup In A Jar Recipes + Tips On How To Assemble, Store & Decorate Them!
Soup in a Jar Recipes are great recipes to use for many purposes. I love them because you can keep them in the pantry to have on hand for those days that you need an easy meal. They also make great gift items for not only gift giving occasions, but also for when someone may be ill, or recently had a baby, or any other reason that they could use help with a meal.
If you took advantage of the free mason jars deal we shared recently (no longer available), this could be a great way to use those too!
Here are some tips on how to make the best of these Soup In A Jar Recipes:
In order to get that pretty layered look, you will need to know what size jar to use. Star with some pre-made recipes (we have some below) and then you can get a feel for how the ingredients work n a jar, and adapt your family recipes later.
Wide mouth canning jars will often be the easiest to work with, and most affordable (and seal tight) but there are other air tight options too.
Use a canning funnel to get a nice layered look (this will help you to get the items to settle on each layer easier).
Gently pound the jar on the counter to help settle the layers after each layer.
It works best if you add the more powdery or smaller ingredients to the bottom generally, and work your way up to the top with the larger ingredients.
Tips for Storing Soup in a Jar Recipes:
Items with a longer shelf life work best. Things like beans and noodles, seasonings and freeze dried foods.
You can figure out a shelf life for you soup, but knowing the expiration dates of the items you put in the jar. The item with the shortest expiration date should determine your shelf life (for example, if you have added noodles with a shelf life of 6 months, and the other ingredients have a shelf life of 9 months, 6 months is the shelf life for that recipe).
Be sure to use air tight containers.If you use food sealer jars to remove the air you will get the best shelf life out of that recipe.
Store in a cool place
Tips for Displaying your Soup Recipes (especially if they are gifts):
You can cut a circle about a inch larger in circumference then your lid, and use that as a decorative cover (you can attach it with a rubber band or twine).
Make a label to note what is in the jar, the shelf life and any instructions on how to make it. You can use a sticker label and attach directly to jar, or use a card stock label and attach with string
If you are using canning jars, you can add stickers to the inside metal piece before screwing on the final metal outer ring for the top.
You can tie on a utensil like a small scoop) to get the ingredients out of the jar when its opened.
Here are a couple of our favorite Soup in a Jar Recipes to start with:
This is such a great one to keep stocked in your pantry, and makes a wonderful gift for other, especially in the Fall and Winter. Beans are not only filling, but a good source of protein, so wonderful to keep on your shelves. It only needs three wet ingredients (can of tomatoes, water and stock) so that is a nice plus. It does require that you soak the beans, so it will take more time to prepare, but it is a simple and tasty soup recipe.
Olive Garden has made Pasta fa*gioli soup famous, and many love it, making this soup in a jar recipe a great one to share as a gift, or meal for someone. This one will need a few veggie ingredients to be added, but it is sure to be popular and perfect for gifting.
This recipe is the perfect one to use in gifting, as she provides you the lables (both the soup type and the cooking instructions) as a printable – so even making the jar pretty will be easy!
Here is another bean soup, but the Spicy Black Bean element adds a new twist to more common bean soups you will find in a jar. A couple of things I love about this one, are the cute little wooden spoon she recommends adding to it. It really makes it look like you bought it from a specialty store. Also, by adding the fresh cilantro or herbs in the final product, it gives it a really fresh taste, even though the majority of ingredients came from a jar.
This soup packages up beautifully, and all you need to complete it is water! It makes a beautiful gift, and is perfect for those that maybe dont like to do too much cooking, but like to eat well – or keep it in your own pantry for those nights that you want a delicious meal without a lot of hard work!
This one is more like a soup starter recipe (as you will need to brown up some meat and other ingredients to add), but is a great gift for someone interested in making homemade soups, but could use a starter pack to help them down that path.
Home canning is also quite effective for preserving soup for an extended period. With most homemade soups, unopened cans will remain safe for consumption for up to one year. At the absolute latest, soup should be consumed within two years of canning, at which point the risk of foodborne illness becomes higher.
It may sound a bit strange and unusual for some, but vinegar is a common ingredient in some soup recipes, and there is a good reason for it. If you think about it, vinegar is really a flavor-enhancer (umami). That's why it is so often used in cooking, sauces, and salad dressings. The same is true with soups.
The water bath method for preserving foodstuff in glass jars is probably the most common way to seal Mason jars. However you can purchase the vacuum sealing attachments or use the aesthetically pleasing wax sealing method for craft projects in glass. Sealed glass jars keep goods unspoiled for up to a year.
Hot water could cause thermal shock, which is the scientific term for when a rapid temperature change causes an object — in this case, a mason jar — to break. While Bodrug's recipe might save time, you should take a few extra minutes to warm up the jar before heating the soup.
Herbs and spices add aroma, flavor, and intensity to soup broth. "Use fresh or dried basil in tomato-based recipes or fresh parsley to add freshness to clear broth soups," says Sofia Norton, RD. You can also go with more heat and spices.
For clear, brothy soups, stock is your most important ingredient. If you want to make a good soup, you need to use an excellently flavored stock — otherwise, the entire pot could be tasteless.
Adding an acidic component (foods we'd consider to be sour) almost always enhances the flavors of a dish. A splash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon adds a brightness to foods that often doesn't occur on its own.
To season it, we recommend starting with our Vegetable Soup Mix. It contains celery salt, parsley flakes, garlic powder, sea salt, summer savory, marjoram, thyme, black pepper, turmeric and sage, which are all excellent with root vegetables, so you can incorporate things like carrots or potatoes into the soup.
For vegetable soup, fill the jars half full of solids, add broth allowing 1-inch headspace and process in a pressure canner. There needs to be space for the hot liquid to circulate between the food particles.
It's best not to keep these Mason jars longer than three to five days. During that period, check the smell and appearance of the food to determine whether it's safe to eat. Otherwise, past five days, toss the contents.
Remove the lid from your canner and let the hot jars cool for a few minutes. Then, use tongs to remove them from the canner, and place the jars a few inches apart on a thick towel on your counter. Let them sit and cool for twelve hours. Store in a cool, dark, dry place and your canned soup will last for a year.
Fresh soup can also be placed in a canning jar and refrigerated until needed. As long as the soup is hot and the jar is clean, the soup should last for a week.
Yes! Beyond using Mason jars for canning recipes and flower arrangements, you can also use Mason jars for soup. The internet adores this popular meal prep hack. The trend has racked up over 9 million views on TikTok!
Make your soup according to the recipe directions, and ladle into your containers. Containers may be wide-mouth canning jars or rigid plastic containers. Leave one inch of head space for quarts and ½ inch of headspace for pints to allow for expansion of the liquid during the freezing process.
Introduction: My name is Aracelis Kilback, I am a nice, gentle, agreeable, joyous, attractive, combative, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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