Soup from the Freezer
Frozen vegetables go straight into the pot frozen. Thawing them only costs time and flavor.
- Preparation
- 5 min
- Cook/bake time
- 15 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Calories
Frozen vegetables go straight into the pot frozen. Thawing them only costs time and flavor. Vegetables are usually flash-frozen within hours of harvesting and often contain more vitamins than the fresh produce on the shelf. For a soup on an evening when nothing was planned, it is the better ingredient.
Why this works
Flash-freezing forms very small ice crystals that barely damage the cell walls. If the vegetables thaw slowly, these crystals grow again. They tear the cells apart, and the cell juice leaks out as soon as it gets warm. This is exactly why frozen vegetables go straight into the hot pot frozen: the transition is so fast that the crystals have no time to grow. The second point is the lentil. Red lentils need no soaking and break down completely in fifteen minutes. Their released starch thickens the soup without the need for flour, cream, or an immersion blender. And the tomato paste is roasted instead of just stirred in: only in hot fat do its sugars lose their sharp acidity and gain depth.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Sauté the onion
Sauté the diced onion in oil for four minutes until translucent and add the garlic in the last minute. These are the only fresh ingredients in the recipe, and they are worth their four minutes. A soup without sautéed onions rarely becomes more than hot broth water.
- 2
Roast the tomato paste
Stir in the tomato paste and cumin and roast both for two minutes until the paste darkens and no longer smells sharply acidic. Stirred in raw, tomato paste remains sharp, but roasted, it gives the soup depth.
- 3
Lentils, vegetables, broth
Add the lentils and the frozen vegetables without thawing, straight from the package, and pour in the broth. Bring to a boil and let simmer gently for fifteen minutes until the lentils have broken down and the soup thickens on its own.
- 4
Season to taste
Remove the pot from the heat and season to taste with salt, pepper, and the lemon juice. The acidity at the end is especially important for a freezer soup: it replaces the freshness that fresh vegetables would have brought.
Our best tips
- Never thaw frozen vegetables beforehand. During slow thawing, the ice crystals grow and destroy the cell walls. Then the cell juice ends up in the strainer instead of the vegetables.
